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Hi HN! I'm Syrus, from Wasmer. We built Edge.js in a few weeks after different trials trying to bring Node.js to the Edge. We used AI and Codex heavily for thi
by syrusakbary 7mo ago
Hi HN!
I'm Syrus, from Wasmer. We built Edge.js in a few weeks after different trials trying to bring Node.js to the Edge. We used AI and Codex heavily for this project, as otherwise the timeline would have spanned to a year plus to develop.
The summary of this announcement is that Edge.js:
* Runs using WebAssembly when in `--safe` mode
* It's fully compatible with Node.js (passing all their spec tests for non-VM modules)
* It has a pluggable JS engine architecture: can work with V8, Javascript, SpiderMonkey, QuickJS, Hermes, etc.
Super happy to answer any questions you may have!
- larsnystrom 7mo agoMaybe I’m just dense, but it says the fs module is fully supported, so what happens when I try to read a file from disk if the app is fully sandboxed?
- syrusakbary 7mo agoOnly the current working directory will be exposed/mounted to the runtime (we do this to facilitate the DX when running local files without requiring the user to add extra flags). As a fun exercise, you can try reading process.cwd() from edge in --safe mode and without it.
- micecof 7mo agobut what if I want to expose / mount more files in the sandbox? need docs
- syrusakbary 7mo agoActually agree with you here. It will be a good idea to add docs for the CLI and the WebAssembly sandboxing
- jonny_eh 7mo ago> * Runs using WebAssembly when in `--safe` mode Why is safe mode opt-in?
- Onavo 7mo agoWhat's the Next.js compatibility like?
- syrusakbary 7mo agoEdge.js is fully compatible with Next.js
- gamebak 7mo agonoob question, but how can you create a localhost:3000 port, when ported to wasm, in the browser? I think this is a cool demo for you to show, at least in my mind this might be a little mind blowing + maybe a db? I know there are wasm dbs availble that are very light, but so that maybe it's a plus to consider.
- gavinray 7mo agoNode does not run in a browser?
- syrusakbary 7mo agoYet... stay tuned!
- bhelx 7mo agoJust wanted to chime in to say this is really cool. I dreamed of building something like this for the Extism ecosystem but it was a huge lift to unlock all the pieces. This looks like lots of innovation all the way down the stack. Kudos!
- syrusakbary 7mo agoThanks Ben! Took us a bit to figure out the best architecture for it, but once it became clear then it was just a matter of implementing the missing bits. I think the fact that WASIX is much more mature now have helped to increase development speeds quite a bit!