Slashdot Mirror
Will WebAssembly Replace JavaScript? (medium.com)
On Tuesday Firefox 52 became the first browser to support WebAssembly, a new standard "to enable near-native performance for web applications" without a plug-in by pre-compiling code into low-level, machine-ready instructions. Mozilla engineer Lin Clark sees this as an inflection point where the speed of browser-based applications increases dramatically. An anonymous reader quotes David Bryant, the head of platform engineering at Mozilla.
This new standard will enable amazing video games and high-performance web apps for things like computer-aided design, video and image editing, and scientific visualization...
Over time, many existing productivity apps (e.g. email, social networks, word processing) and JavaScript frameworks will likely use WebAssembly to significantly reduce load times while simultaneously improving performance while running... developers can integrate WebAssembly libraries for CPU-intensive calculations (e.g. compression, face detection, physics) into existing web apps that use JavaScript for less intensive work... In some ways, WebAssembly changes what it means to be a web developer, as well as the fundamental abilities of the web.
Mozilla celebrated with a demo video of the high-resolution graphics of Zen Garden, and while right now WebAssembly supports compilation from C and C++ (plus some preliminary support for Rust), "We expect that, as WebAssembly continues to evolve, you'll also be able to use it with programming languages often used for mobile apps, like Java, Swift, and C#."
Mozilla celebrated with a demo video of the high-resolution graphics of Zen Garden, and while right now WebAssembly supports compilation from C and C++ (plus some preliminary support for Rust), "We expect that, as WebAssembly continues to evolve, you'll also be able to use it with programming languages often used for mobile apps, like Java, Swift, and C#."
Meh, not so much - its the *default* language for clientside web interaction right now, and thats the *only* reason it has the establishment that it has.
The only thing that would have to happen for Javascripts domination to be threatened is for multiple browsers supporting something better, and thats happening with WebAssembly. Once developers realise they can stick to their language of choice and cross compile to WebAssembly, thats pretty much game over for JS - think of all the reasons touted for using Node.js, just this time think about them being used against JS...
I wouldnt be at all surprised to see a significant shift start to happen in the next 18 months.
Obviously this will allow much faster "apps" but we all know what that means. Tons of "features" i.e. yet more bloat and "innovation" i.e. new version of shit that looks like it's for cell phones and runs 4x slower.
Javascript engines got a lot faster a few years ago and all we got was a ton of garbage and google making their "Maps" excruciatingly slow unless you run brand new hardware. Also, javascript Doom got taken off the internet for copyright infrigement and all the games are on Android Google Play anyway.
Devs, stop masturbating to your i5/i7 laptop and your Samsung S7 and don't forget to also test on sensible specs like 1GHz and unsupported AMD graphics. People aren't interested into upgrading every other year to a computer that can run Crysis just to do the same things we did back in 2005 or so.
Their first year on the Exchange 358 cloud bullshit would have cost them approximately $15k in licensing.
For a service similar to a Linux mail server, that means they have 250 users (Office365 = $5/mailbox). I don't know how fast you can drive to their office but if their Linux mail server crashes or gets stolen, that's 250 people with no email for as long as it takes for you to fix the problem.
On the other end, if the office loses internet connection (which would also make a Linux server useless), those users can still access their Office365 email from their phone or home internet connection.
Email is a commodity and it's a no-brainer to outsource it to a provider that benefits from economy of scale and state-of-the-art data centers staffed 24x7.
lucm, indeed.
What's better: using a JavaScript or WebAssembly app in a web browser and having it fuck up your workflow when it magically changes/disappears one day, or having to run a specific OS to run a native, local application that's there forever until you choose to abandon it?
That's disappointing. JavaScript is an absolutely terrible language, and it's insane that it has been the only choice for client-side Web scripting/programming up until now. Hopefully this is just diplomatic BS. Once WebAssembly is updated to support access to the DOM (the current version can't do that), then there is no good reason for anyone to use JavaScript for anything ever again.
Javascript has gotten a lot better in recent years, but it's still pretty bad.
However, it has lead to a massive explosion in free and open frameworks. You get the source when you use them by nature. It's pretty impressive.
WebAssembly will put a stop to that.