10 Years of WASM: A Retrospective
10 days ago
- #WebDevelopment
- #WASI
- #WebAssembly
- WebAssembly (Wasm) was first conceptualized in 2015 and became a W3C standard in 2019, now widely used in applications like Google Earth, Adobe Photoshop, and game engines.
- The development of Wasm was influenced by earlier technologies like asm.js and Google's Native Client (NaCl), with key contributions from engineers across Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
- Wasm's design emphasizes a 'trusted call stack' allowing seamless integration with JavaScript, a decision that proved foundational for its success.
- The name 'WebAssembly' was chosen to reflect its web origins and asm.js heritage, despite initial concerns about its broader applicability beyond the web.
- Wasm's rapid standardization and adoption were driven by collaboration among major browser vendors, with all four major browsers supporting it by the end of 2017.
- The expansion of Wasm beyond the browser led to the development of WASI (WebAssembly System Interface) and the Component Model, enabling secure interoperability across different languages and systems.
- Future applications of Wasm include embedded systems, AI-generated code sandboxing, and potential innovations in cloud-native execution environments.
- Wasm's journey from a web compilation target to a ubiquitous technology highlights its potential to redefine computing paradigms in the next decade.