4 ms·

I'm blow away at what Devs are able to do within a browser nowadays.

bossyTeacher 9mo ago
More that browsers have gotten sprouted downwards and obtained all sorts of low level access than older browsers didn't use to have. I believe this is partially why tools that were meant to just render markup have gotten so complex to build that a small team of devs is not enough to build a modern browser anymore. And by that I mean from scratch, not just piggybacking on Chromium or Gecko.
- idle_zealot 9mo ago
  > I believe this is partially why tools that were meant to just render markup have gotten so complex to build that a small team of devs is not enough to build a modern browser anymore. Isn't it basically the opposite? The hard parts of the browser are layout, styling, and multimedia stuff that goes into rendering markup compliantly. Then there's the infinite sink of optimization work for a JS engine, the high-level scripting language for that markup. The low level access that something like this emulator use is comparatively easy; a WASM runtime and Canvas blitting pixels from some shared buffer. Or am I mistaken that a WASM engine is much easier to build than a performant JS engine?
  - nomel 9mo ago
    > Or am I mistaken that a WASM engine is much easier to build than a performant JS engine? Absolutely. It's very limited, and designed for purpose, rather than somewhat by mistake (like JS): https://github.com/sunfishcode/wasm-reference-manual/blob/master/WebAssembly.md#instructions https://github.com/sunfishcode/wasm-reference-manual/blob/ma...
pjmlp 9mo ago
You could have done the same with plugins in the past.
- afavour 9mo ago
  And now we don't need to use them and expose ourselves to security vulnerabilities. Win win.
quailfarmer 9mo ago
I’m very mixed about WASM. It’s clearly a very cool technology, and enables cool things by allowing native performance without needing multi-platform support. But at the same time, it provides a vector for foreign, non-free software to run on my computer. Every time someone sends me a Google doc blocking printing/copying (on _my_ computer!), it makes me want to join a monastery.
- IshKebab 9mo ago
  Javascript already provides a way for foreign non-free software to run on your computer. WASM doesn't change anything about that.

More that browsers have gotten sprouted downwards and obtained all sorts of low level access than older browsers didn't use to have. I believe this is partially why tools that were meant to just render markup have gotten so complex to build that a small team of devs is not enough to build a modern browser anymore. And by that I mean from scratch, not just piggybacking on Chromium or Gecko.

idle_zealot 9mo ago
> I believe this is partially why tools that were meant to just render markup have gotten so complex to build that a small team of devs is not enough to build a modern browser anymore. Isn't it basically the opposite? The hard parts of the browser are layout, styling, and multimedia stuff that goes into rendering markup compliantly. Then there's the infinite sink of optimization work for a JS engine, the high-level scripting language for that markup. The low level access that something like this emulator use is comparatively easy; a WASM runtime and Canvas blitting pixels from some shared buffer. Or am I mistaken that a WASM engine is much easier to build than a performant JS engine?
- nomel 9mo ago
  > Or am I mistaken that a WASM engine is much easier to build than a performant JS engine? Absolutely. It's very limited, and designed for purpose, rather than somewhat by mistake (like JS): https://github.com/sunfishcode/wasm-reference-manual/blob/master/WebAssembly.md#instructions https://github.com/sunfishcode/wasm-reference-manual/blob/ma...

pjmlp 9mo ago

You could have done the same with plugins in the past.

afavour 9mo ago
And now we don't need to use them and expose ourselves to security vulnerabilities. Win win.

quailfarmer 9mo ago

I’m very mixed about WASM. It’s clearly a very cool technology, and enables cool things by allowing native performance without needing multi-platform support. But at the same time, it provides a vector for foreign, non-free software to run on my computer. Every time someone sends me a Google doc blocking printing/copying (on _my_ computer!), it makes me want to join a monastery.

IshKebab 9mo ago
Javascript already provides a way for foreign non-free software to run on your computer. WASM doesn't change anything about that.