What Happened to WebAssembly

4 months ago

WebAssembly is used in real-world applications like Godot for web games, Squoosh.app for image processing, and Figma for C++ code conversion.
WebAssembly is a language, not a speed benchmark; its efficiency depends on how well it maps to modern hardware.
WebAssembly can be compiled from many languages including Rust, C, and Go, and can run in browsers or standalone runtimes.
Security is a key feature of WebAssembly, with minimal attack surfaces and explicit host-defined imports for external interactions.
WebAssembly enables portability and embeddability, allowing plugins and tools in various environments without language constraints.
Performance trade-offs exist with WebAssembly, including binary bloat and boundary crossing costs, but it's generally 'fast enough' for most uses.
WebAssembly's development is active but controversial, with rapid standardization and feature adoption raising concerns about missteps.
WebAssembly is unlikely to replace JavaScript in browsers but is widely used by library authors, often transparently to application developers.

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