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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.
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?