What is WebAssembly? The next-generation web platform explained
For two decades now, we’ve had only one programming language available to use natively in a web browser: JavaScript. The slow death of third-party binary plug-ins has ruled out other languages, such as Java and Flash’s ActionScript, as first-class citizens for web development. Other web languages, like CoffeeScript, are merely compiled to JavaScript.But now we have a new possibility: WebAssembly, or Wasm for short. WebAssembly is a small, fast binary format that promises near-native performance for web applications. Plus, WebAssembly is designed to be a compilation target for any language, JavaScript being just one of them.With every major browser now supporting WebAssembly, it’s time to start thinking seriously about writing client-side apps for the web that can be compiled as WebAssembly.To read this article in full, please click here
For two decades now, we’ve had only one programming language available to use natively in a web browser: JavaScript. The slow death of third-party binary plug-ins has ruled out other languages, such as Java and Flash’s ActionScript, as first-class citizens for web development. Other web languages, like CoffeeScript, are merely compiled to JavaScript.
But now we have a new possibility: WebAssembly, or Wasm for short. WebAssembly is a small, fast binary format that promises near-native performance for web applications. Plus, WebAssembly is designed to be a compilation target for any language, JavaScript being just one of them.
With every major browser now supporting WebAssembly, it’s time to start thinking seriously about writing client-side apps for the web that can be compiled as WebAssembly.
