What is WebAssembly good for?
WebAssembly has been hailed in some quarters as the next JavaScript, but the truth is much more complicated. Sasha Aickin outlines what WebAssembly is good for right now in today's shipping browsers. Through the lens of a project ported from JavaScript to WebAssembly, Sasha details when it is practical to use WebAssembly and when it is not.
| Talk Title | What is WebAssembly good for? |
| Speakers | Sasha Aickin (Self-employed) |
| Conference | O’Reilly Fluent Conference |
| Conf Tag | The Web Platform in Practice |
| Location | San Jose, California |
| Date | June 12-14, 2018 |
| URL | Talk Page |
| Slides | Talk Slides |
| Video | |
WebAssembly holds great promise for the ability to create faster and more reliable dynamic websites, and it is now shipping in all major current browsers. The truth on the ground, however, is a bit more complicated: WebAssembly doesn’t natively support garbage collection, interoperation with JavaScript can be painful, and performance doesn’t always match up to expectations. Sasha Aickin details the strengths and the limits of WebAssembly through the lens of a medium-sized project that has been ported from JavaScript to WebAssembly using Rust. Topics include:
