azakai

8 ms·

91.
by azakai 1y ago
Wasm GC is entirely separate from Wasm Memory objects, so no, this does not help linear memory applications.
92.
by azakai 1y ago
The special part is the "signal handler trick" that is easy to use for 32-bit pointers. You reserve 4GB of memory - all that 32 bits can address - and mark everything above used memory as trapping. Then you can just do normal read
93.
by azakai 1y ago
> Yeah, my suspicion is that current-style LLMs, being inherently predictors of what a human would say, will eventually plateau at a relatively human level of ability to think and reason. I don't think things can end there. Machines
94.
by azakai 1y ago
Yes, this can be done today, though it needs some gluing together. On the Web (and in Node etc.) you can use JavaScript to create and link the modules, which is how dynamic linking support for wasm works there: https://emscripten
95.
by azakai 1y ago
This is indeed unfortunate, but on the other hand, multivalue's benefits are probably very small. Inside functions, there is perhaps a 1-3% code size opportunity at best ( https://github.com/WebAssembly/binaryen?tab
96.
by azakai 2y ago
The JVM is designed around Java. That's really the main difference, and it brings some downsides for the goals of wasm, which include running native code - think C++ or Rust. The JVM is great at Java, which relies on runtime inlining e
97.
by azakai 2y ago
> [wasm] is executed in a stack-based virtual machine rather than as a native library code. Wasm's binary format is indeed a stack-based virtual machine, but that is not how it is executed. Optimizing VMs convert it to SSA form, bas
98.
by azakai 2y ago
Yeah, "billion" should be "million" in that sentence.
99.
by azakai 2y ago
The difference with Java applets from back then is that wasm was designed by web browsers in order to work well in them. Java applets were plugins, which led to security issues, and worse, security issues not under the control of the browse
100.
by azakai 2y ago
There is an in-between, which is the world we live in right now. JavaScript and TypeScript are great languages with excellent Web integration, whereas wasm is focused on pure computation (forcing it to bundle its standard library, for examp
101.
by azakai 2y ago
> Where is WASM in the browser really used apart from crypto miners? Art and design: Photoshop, Figma Games: Unity, many other engines or components inside engines (e.g. Bullet) Videoconferencing: Zoom, Google Meet, etc. Productivity: Go
102.
by azakai 2y ago
Exactly, the point is that C++ added templates as a huge new language feature, while in Zig it is just one of the things that is immediately possible thanks to comptime.
103.
by azakai 2y ago
While both those points would normally be valid, this is a pretty unique one-time event. The best way to look at it is that cars are getting redistributed: left-leaning people that bought Teslas are trading them to right-leaning people (tha
104.
by azakai 2y ago
Why would selling cause more carbon in the atmosphere? I suppose it might if you replace with a non-EV, but there are plenty of good EVs.
105.
by azakai 2y ago
Reddit might not be representative of the larger shift. I am sure there is plenty of hatred, and even violence that makes the news, and that stuff is bad, but I mostly see people politely nudging those they know that own Teslas to sell them
106.
by azakai 2y ago
> He’s pro Israel and want less government regulation. I’m no expert, but to me that seems anti-Nazi? Elon obviously does not tick off every box for "Nazi", but he gets so many that a lot of people are understandably horrified.
107.
by azakai 2y ago
It's even worse than that, many conservatives live in rural areas where EV chargers are less common. This really is a case of trading a good addressable market for a much smaller one. Business-wise it makes no sense at all.
108.
by azakai 2y ago
> Is there a JITing C compiler, or something like that? Yes, for example, compiling C to JavaScript (or asm.js, etc. [0]) leads to the C code being JITed. And yes, there are definitely benchmarks where this is actually faster. Any time t
109.
by azakai 2y ago
Definitely Elden Ring. As evidence, even Harper's Magazine wrote about it: https://harpers.org/archive/2024/11/dying-is-a-form-of-educa...
110.
by azakai 2y ago
You're right, but wasm's goals were never to be a mainstream way to write web applications. It was designed very specifically to allow things like Photoshop, Unity, and other high-end applications to run on the Web, things that ju
111.
by azakai 2y ago
Lots of people use wasm in production right now, and toolchain support is in a good place across several languages. In that sense we are already there. You likely visited a website using wasm today without realizing it, and major apps like
112.
by azakai 2y ago
It is true that human consciousness is continuous over time, but maybe some animals have very little of that? Or, to look at it like Black Mirror, if you upload your consciousness into a machine, are you not conscious if it pauses the simul
113.
by azakai 2y ago
Overall this is very good, but I have one specific note: Lesson 6 says "LLMs aren't conscious." I think I get what you're saying there - they are not conscious in the same way that humans are - but "consciousness&qu
114.
by azakai 2y ago
True that the US's share of global GDP is lower than it has been. But there are many other ways to measure its power (and dominance), so it is easy to argue about this between reasonable people. Rather than make any specific point, I&#
115.
by azakai 2y ago
Interesting, thanks for the details! WasmGC would be the best solution here, yeah, then the VM handles pointers for you. Otherwise, I could look into the SpillPointers issue for you if you want - optimizations should not remove GC pointers,
116.
by azakai 2y ago
It looks like the wasm file here is not fully optimized. Reading the wasm and JS, I'd guess -O1 perhaps? Linking with -O3 would make it smaller and possibly faster (10% smaller binary in a quick local test, and it removes 90% of locals
117.
by azakai 2y ago
Very cool! The wasm file here could be optimized more. It looks like a 43 MB wasm is downloaded, and wasm-opt -O3 shrinks that to just 14 MB. It might also be faster that way (due to inlining and other optimizations). Startup will definit
118.
by azakai 2y ago
Aside from tech, though: practically none of the non-tech people I followed on Twitter moved to Mastodon. Almost all of them went to Bluesky. I follow a mix of people, so I ended up mostly on Bluesky. I would have been happy on Mastodon too
119.
by azakai 2y ago
Definitely a lot is missing, yeah, and adding more will take time. But it works well already for pure computational code. For example, Google Sheets uses WasmGC for Java logic: https://web.dev/case-studies/google-sheets
120.
by azakai 2y ago
> is moonbit charging? I assume GP refers to the license of MoonBit, SSPL + exceptions, which is not generally considered fully open source. https://www.moonbitlang.com/blog/compiler-opensource#why-a-r... Usually th

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