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For anyone who works on Chrome: does this mean that Chrome won't move to support asm.js? I tried searching the bug tracker and discussion group and couldn't fin

For anyone who works on Chrome: does this mean that Chrome won't move to support asm.js? I tried searching the bug tracker and discussion group and couldn't find anything. In general I'm really happy that we're getting faster (no-gc) runtimes, but I think I favor asm.js's approach due to its backwards compatibility (though I admit I am not aware of the nuances of each implementation).

elisee 13y ago
Chrome has taken the approach of working on improving their V8 engine to (hopefully) achieve similar performance to Firefox's specialized asm.js AOT codepath but without any special handling of the "use asm" directive (which gives Firefox guarantees about variable types & stuff like that). See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6553794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6553794 for a discussion on the subject.
- peterhunt 13y ago
  Great, thank you for the link!
misuba 13y ago
They provide pepper.js, which does a similar trick for PnaCl stuff.
_prometheus 13y ago
> backward compatibility IMO NaCl is much more backwards compatible, letting you recompile old code-bases for the web with minimal changes. The javascript approach (even with the speed gains of asm.js) does not have threads/native instructions/etc. I want chrome to support asm.js, and firefox to support NaCl. Winning all around. > though I admit I am not aware of the nuances of each implementation Perhaps a neutral discussion page is needed... I'll see about making one.
- pcwalton 13y ago
  You don't have native instructions in PNaCl, which is what this is about.
sry_not4sale 13y ago
Here is the V8 (Chrome) bug for asm.js support: http://code.google.com/p/v8/issues/detail?id=2599 http://code.google.com/p/v8/issues/detail?id=2599
asdfaoeu 13y ago
In a way NaCl offers better backwards compatibility as the code can be compiled to both NaCl and Javascript simultaneously. asm.js javascript offers subpar performance on non asm.js platforms as it is optimised to a specific subset that would have no benefit on those. Also long run asm.js sounds like a terrible format when you consider the extra overhead of massive javascript files that could be concisely encoded like NaCl.
- azakai 13y ago
  > asm.js javascript offers subpar performance on non asm.js platforms What kind of browser do you consider a "non-asm.js platform"? Chrome for example is not detecting asm.js specifically, but still optimizes for the types of patterns in asm.js code. As a consequence it can run asm.js code very well, on par with Firefox in many cases, for example https://docs.google.com/a/mozilla.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkuGewEm05tZdFdKQlEtaFBmX3NjTWlHOVlDbXloY1E#gid=2 https://docs.google.com/a/mozilla.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0A...

elisee 13y ago

Chrome has taken the approach of working on improving their V8 engine to (hopefully) achieve similar performance to Firefox's specialized asm.js AOT codepath but without any special handling of the "use asm" directive (which gives Firefox guarantees about variable types & stuff like that). See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6553794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6553794 for a discussion on the subject.

peterhunt 13y ago
Great, thank you for the link!

misuba 13y ago

They provide pepper.js, which does a similar trick for PnaCl stuff.

_prometheus 13y ago

> backward compatibility IMO NaCl is much more backwards compatible, letting you recompile old code-bases for the web with minimal changes. The javascript approach (even with the speed gains of asm.js) does not have threads/native instructions/etc. I want chrome to support asm.js, and firefox to support NaCl. Winning all around. > though I admit I am not aware of the nuances of each implementation Perhaps a neutral discussion page is needed... I'll see about making one.

pcwalton 13y ago
You don't have native instructions in PNaCl, which is what this is about.

sry_not4sale 13y ago

Here is the V8 (Chrome) bug for asm.js support: http://code.google.com/p/v8/issues/detail?id=2599 http://code.google.com/p/v8/issues/detail?id=2599

asdfaoeu 13y ago

In a way NaCl offers better backwards compatibility as the code can be compiled to both NaCl and Javascript simultaneously. asm.js javascript offers subpar performance on non asm.js platforms as it is optimised to a specific subset that would have no benefit on those. Also long run asm.js sounds like a terrible format when you consider the extra overhead of massive javascript files that could be concisely encoded like NaCl.

azakai 13y ago
> asm.js javascript offers subpar performance on non asm.js platforms What kind of browser do you consider a "non-asm.js platform"? Chrome for example is not detecting asm.js specifically, but still optimizes for the types of patterns in asm.js code. As a consequence it can run asm.js code very well, on par with Firefox in many cases, for example https://docs.google.com/a/mozilla.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkuGewEm05tZdFdKQlEtaFBmX3NjTWlHOVlDbXloY1E#gid=2 https://docs.google.com/a/mozilla.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0A...