5 ms·

Run Ruby on Rails in the browser using WebAssembly

97 points by danielwetan 2y ago

diogolsq 2y ago
What would be the user case of running in your browser?
- danielwetan 2y ago
  You can create a SaaS with fully private data on the client side while using both local operations and managing control via API calls. Think of it like a mobile app, but for the browser.
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    > with fully private data on the client side How is the data fully private?
    - gwright 2y ago
      FWIW, I read that to mean "not shared with the backend".
      - robertlagrant 2y ago
        Oh! Right, I see. I'd have thought we could do that today in Typescript or something, but maybe they have something extra in mind.
        evolve2k 2y ago
        Yeah this is sort of the point. Much of JavaScripts ascendancy is simple it’s monopoly on being able to run native in browser. Wasm lets you bring other languages to the browser. The author didn’t mention using the browsers web console or “how do I use rails console in the browser with wasm?”. That’d be interesting to me. Can I write Ruby in the web console and see things change live in my wasm app?
- emnudge 2y ago
  Outside of making something - it’s very useful for setting up a quick project. Stackblitz did this with Node (aka their Web Containers). You could make a new project very quickly and prototype an idea. When finished, download it off the browser and deploy it.
- JamesSwift 2y ago
  A common usecase for offline-first mobile app situations is shared business logic, especially for validations. Being able to validate client-side and detecting issues without a server dependency is a nice boost to UX.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
Title is: Ruby on Rails on WebAssembly, the full-stack in-browser journey
- danielwetan 2y ago
  thanks mate
  - ChrisArchitect 2y ago
    https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Ruby+on+Rails+on+WebAssembly%2C+the+full-stack+in-browser+journey https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Ruby+on+Rails+on+WebAssembly%2C+th...
    - rob 2y ago
      Nice work.
gjsman-1000 2y ago
Great; now all we need is client side integrity verification with super strong DRM and virtualization techniques; and companies will finally start eliminating most of their compute bills by running the server on the client. Bookmark this comment, we’ll see where we are in 2045; I wouldn't rule out WebAssembly becoming a hardware feature at that point. (I never said I like this - but stupider things have happened, like Electron apps; this would just be the finishing of the circle with web development becoming the new native.)
- JohnBooty 2y ago
  For all "typical" web apps (and certainly the ones for which you'd use RoR) you still need some kind of server providing some kind of central database. Assuming you don't want to just leave 5432 open and expose your Postgres server for the world to rawdog, you are going to need some authentication and other auth logic on the server side. So, I don't see companies really rushing to deploy apps this way.
  - mdaniel 2y ago
    Fun fact, PG supports TLS auth[1] which one could import[2] into a browser context to hypothetically expose it to WASM. I am waving hands here, because I've never used the Web Crypto API in anger, and for sure am not the target audience to run RoR in the browser I hear you about purposefully leaving 5432 open to the Internet, because "C is gonna C" but I just meant much like its "PasswordAuthentication no" friend, sending passwords over the wire is not the only form of auth nowadays. There's a very real chance putting pgbouncer in front of it[3] would reduce the blast radius of exposing C to the Internet. I was hoping pgcat (written in rust) would be a suitable alternative but it does not seem to allow TLS auth 1: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/auth-cert.html https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/auth-cert.html (it's the earliest version still linked on their site) 2: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/importKey https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypt... 3: https://www.pgbouncer.org/config.html#authentication-settings https://www.pgbouncer.org/config.html#authentication-setting...
    - 2y ago
donatj 2y ago
These are all so fun and exciting to me. The kinds of things I dreamed of back in the late 1990s world of extensive browser plugins. There is a port of PHP to WebAssembly a lot of tools are using for interactive playgrounds. I myself compiled a JavaScript ES5 runtime to WASM just for fun a couple of years ago.
mathiasgredal 2y ago
Not exactly related to Ruby on Rails, but why doesn’t there exist a way to run a Python TKinter app in the browser using WASM? I have a medium sized dependency-free TKinter program written in Python, and AFAIK there is no way to run it in the browser.
- acchow 2y ago
  Because Tk draws using native OS APIs. So you’d need to run the whole OS in the browser. Or you could implement a new backend for Tk to draw using some web APIs
  - capitainenemo 2y ago
    Or he could use replit which did go to the trouble of implementing a web backend for the tk wm. There's also a gtk backend for tk (gtkttk), as convoluted as that sounds, so presumably you could use gtk web implementations (broadway) behind that... In any case, Tk doesn't require an OS to do window drawing, it's entirely up to how things are hooked up.
  - andylynch 2y ago
    It’s been awhile, but if you have a browser old enough, here the browser plug-in for TCL/TK: https://www.tcl-lang.org/software/plugin/ https://www.tcl-lang.org/software/plugin/
    - capitainenemo 2y ago
      That doesn't render a web interface, it just bundles the platform specific executable so you can run scripts embedded in the web browser. Kinda like a hole in the web page into which an exe is shoved. Also, no browser runs that stuff anymore, and it wouldn'tve been safe to run even when they did.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
wiseowise 2y ago
Sooo… dies it run faster than actual Ruby?
endorphine 2y ago
Seems like tenderlove will be happy: https://x.com/tenderlove/status/1521961429481361408?mx=2 https://x.com/tenderlove/status/1521961429481361408?mx=2
RangerScience 2y ago
Hmm! I wonder if there’s then a way to bundle something like ViewComponents as WASM, and use them as a React replacement?
yoshuaw 2y ago
The progress on WASI support is very exciting! > Currently, Ruby fully supports the WebAssembly System Interface, WASI 0.1. WASI 0.2 which includes the Component Model is already in the alpha state and a few steps from completion. Once WASI 0.2 is supported it will eliminate the current need of recompiling the whole language every time you need to add new native dependencies: they could be componentized.

97 points by danielwetan 2y ago

diogolsq 2y ago

What would be the user case of running in your browser?

danielwetan 2y ago
You can create a SaaS with fully private data on the client side while using both local operations and managing control via API calls. Think of it like a mobile app, but for the browser.
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  > with fully private data on the client side How is the data fully private?
  - gwright 2y ago
    FWIW, I read that to mean "not shared with the backend".
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      Oh! Right, I see. I'd have thought we could do that today in Typescript or something, but maybe they have something extra in mind.
      - evolve2k 2y ago
        Yeah this is sort of the point. Much of JavaScripts ascendancy is simple it’s monopoly on being able to run native in browser. Wasm lets you bring other languages to the browser. The author didn’t mention using the browsers web console or “how do I use rails console in the browser with wasm?”. That’d be interesting to me. Can I write Ruby in the web console and see things change live in my wasm app?
emnudge 2y ago
Outside of making something - it’s very useful for setting up a quick project. Stackblitz did this with Node (aka their Web Containers). You could make a new project very quickly and prototype an idea. When finished, download it off the browser and deploy it.
JamesSwift 2y ago
A common usecase for offline-first mobile app situations is shared business logic, especially for validations. Being able to validate client-side and detecting issues without a server dependency is a nice boost to UX.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

Title is: Ruby on Rails on WebAssembly, the full-stack in-browser journey

danielwetan 2y ago
thanks mate
- ChrisArchitect 2y ago
  https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Ruby+on+Rails+on+WebAssembly%2C+the+full-stack+in-browser+journey https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Ruby+on+Rails+on+WebAssembly%2C+th...
  - rob 2y ago
    Nice work.

gjsman-1000 2y ago

Great; now all we need is client side integrity verification with super strong DRM and virtualization techniques; and companies will finally start eliminating most of their compute bills by running the server on the client. Bookmark this comment, we’ll see where we are in 2045; I wouldn't rule out WebAssembly becoming a hardware feature at that point. (I never said I like this - but stupider things have happened, like Electron apps; this would just be the finishing of the circle with web development becoming the new native.)

JohnBooty 2y ago
For all "typical" web apps (and certainly the ones for which you'd use RoR) you still need some kind of server providing some kind of central database. Assuming you don't want to just leave 5432 open and expose your Postgres server for the world to rawdog, you are going to need some authentication and other auth logic on the server side. So, I don't see companies really rushing to deploy apps this way.
- mdaniel 2y ago
  Fun fact, PG supports TLS auth[1] which one could import[2] into a browser context to hypothetically expose it to WASM. I am waving hands here, because I've never used the Web Crypto API in anger, and for sure am not the target audience to run RoR in the browser I hear you about purposefully leaving 5432 open to the Internet, because "C is gonna C" but I just meant much like its "PasswordAuthentication no" friend, sending passwords over the wire is not the only form of auth nowadays. There's a very real chance putting pgbouncer in front of it[3] would reduce the blast radius of exposing C to the Internet. I was hoping pgcat (written in rust) would be a suitable alternative but it does not seem to allow TLS auth 1: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/auth-cert.html https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/auth-cert.html (it's the earliest version still linked on their site) 2: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/importKey https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypt... 3: https://www.pgbouncer.org/config.html#authentication-settings https://www.pgbouncer.org/config.html#authentication-setting...
  - 2y ago

donatj 2y ago

These are all so fun and exciting to me. The kinds of things I dreamed of back in the late 1990s world of extensive browser plugins. There is a port of PHP to WebAssembly a lot of tools are using for interactive playgrounds. I myself compiled a JavaScript ES5 runtime to WASM just for fun a couple of years ago.

mathiasgredal 2y ago

Not exactly related to Ruby on Rails, but why doesn’t there exist a way to run a Python TKinter app in the browser using WASM? I have a medium sized dependency-free TKinter program written in Python, and AFAIK there is no way to run it in the browser.

acchow 2y ago
Because Tk draws using native OS APIs. So you’d need to run the whole OS in the browser. Or you could implement a new backend for Tk to draw using some web APIs
- capitainenemo 2y ago
  Or he could use replit which did go to the trouble of implementing a web backend for the tk wm. There's also a gtk backend for tk (gtkttk), as convoluted as that sounds, so presumably you could use gtk web implementations (broadway) behind that... In any case, Tk doesn't require an OS to do window drawing, it's entirely up to how things are hooked up.
- andylynch 2y ago
  It’s been awhile, but if you have a browser old enough, here the browser plug-in for TCL/TK: https://www.tcl-lang.org/software/plugin/ https://www.tcl-lang.org/software/plugin/
  - capitainenemo 2y ago
    That doesn't render a web interface, it just bundles the platform specific executable so you can run scripts embedded in the web browser. Kinda like a hole in the web page into which an exe is shoved. Also, no browser runs that stuff anymore, and it wouldn'tve been safe to run even when they did.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

wiseowise 2y ago

Sooo… dies it run faster than actual Ruby?

endorphine 2y ago

Seems like tenderlove will be happy: https://x.com/tenderlove/status/1521961429481361408?mx=2 https://x.com/tenderlove/status/1521961429481361408?mx=2

RangerScience 2y ago

Hmm! I wonder if there’s then a way to bundle something like ViewComponents as WASM, and use them as a React replacement?

yoshuaw 2y ago

The progress on WASI support is very exciting! > Currently, Ruby fully supports the WebAssembly System Interface, WASI 0.1. WASI 0.2 which includes the Component Model is already in the alpha state and a few steps from completion. Once WASI 0.2 is supported it will eliminate the current need of recompiling the whole language every time you need to add new native dependencies: they could be componentized.