SpyderTL wrote:
WebAssembly opens the door to all of the non-JavaScript developers to be able to write code to run in the web browser. (C#, C++, etc.)
I understand this, but that door was already open for more than 20 years. I'm only skeptical because JavaApplets had the same premise. You could write applets in Java, Ruby, Pascal or Scala for example, and yet nobody cared and JavaScript remained the main script language of the web for some reason.
SpyderTL wrote:
Also, WebAssembly provides improved performance for low-level operations. So I would expect to see a lot more, and a lot better x86 virtual machines, and game console emulators showing up on the web in the near future.
The same with JavaApplets. With JIT compilation they were running at almost native speed.
SpyderTL wrote:
Which means, among other things, that I'll finally be able to play NES games on my iPhone.
Ok, applets were never ported to mobile OSes, maybe Webassembly will be. TBH I don't know why, Android already had a JavaVM pre-installed, so could be technically done. I think it was more like a marketing decision.
I understand what they say about the benefits of Webassembly, it's just they have told exactly the same about JavaApplets. Put the marketing bullshit aside,
- both are OpenSource standards,
- both can be compiled from different languages,
- both distributed as bytecode,
- both running in a vm (probably JIT compiled),
- both having access to hardware (like 3D acceleration),
- both are embeddable on a webpage.
So if the first one failed despite all of these advantages, then why won't the second fail too? You know what I mean? What does Webassembly have that JavaApplets don't, or, what is that JavaApplets lacked to be successful, and how does Webassembly address that hiatus?
I'm afraid this leads us off-topic, maybe would be better to open a new topic perhaps?
I still think that it's a very interesting idea to experiment with an OS in Webassembly, regardless to the question will Webassembly be successful or not. I've suggested SUBLEQ because it has a minimal dependency, all provided by the browsers (storage, events and the canvas technology to be more precise).
Cheers,
bzt