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Mozilla partners with Intel, Red Hat and Fastly to take WebAssembly beyond the browser – TechCrunch
Mozilla, Intel, Red Hat and Fastly today announced the launch of the Bytecode Alliance, a new open-source group that focuses on “creating new software foundations, building on standards such as WebAssembly and WebAssembly System Interface (WASI).”
Mozilla has long championed WebAssembly, the open standard that allows browsers to execute compiled programs in the browser. This allows developers to write their applications in languages like C, C++ and Rust and have those programs execute at native speed, all without having to rely on JavaScript, which would take much longer to parse and execute, especially on mobile devices.
[...] The mission of this new group goes beyond the browser, though. It wants to establish “a capable, secure platform that allows application developers and service providers to confidently run untrusted code, on any infrastructure, for any operating system or device, leveraging decades of experience doing so inside web browsers.” The argument here is that there is plenty of potential for WebAssembly outside of the browser because it allows untrusted code components to interact with trusted code inside of a sandboxed environment. Indeed, a Mozilla spokesperson noted that WebAssembly has generated more interest from businesses that are interested in this use case than from the traditional application developers and web technologists. Hence this new alliance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @01:54PM (4 children)
First of all, webassembly is not to run compiled programs, it is to replace javascript's usage as bytecode and remove the stronghold Google has on the web. If you haven't hear of asmjs, what are you doing commenting on this topic before reading a little?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 13 2019, @06:50PM (3 children)
The article seems to disagree with you:
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That's not really mutually exclusive with running compiled programs. Java already contorts its terminology to avoid calling what it spits out "compiled", but it is; it's just targeting a virtual platform instead of a physical chipset.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 13 2019, @06:52PM (2 children)
On further examination, I'm not sure whether *you're* the one confusing Java and JavaScript, or if this is some sexy new abomination of JS that I'm not familiar with. A JS script is not "bytecode" by the definitions I'm familiar with.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @07:16PM (1 child)
There are things that "compile to javascript" so while its not "bytecode" in that it's asci characters, its minified javascript which is about as readable as bytecode/assembly with all the whitespace removed.
Lists of things that "compile to javascript":
https://www.sitepoint.com/10-languages-compile-javascript/ [sitepoint.com]
https://github.com/jashkenas/coffeescript/wiki/list-of-languages-that-compile-to-js [github.com]
and many, many, more...
(Score: 3, Informative) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 13 2019, @09:04PM
I can write a program in Brainfuck, but that doesn't mean the source is compiled rather than interpreted.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"