WebAssembly

WebAssembly
Paradigm Expression-oriented
Typing discipline Static
Platform Platform independent
License Apache License
Filename extensions .wast, .wasm
Website webassembly.org
Influenced by
asm.js, PNaCl

WebAssembly or wasm is an experimental efficient low-level programming language for in-browser client-side scripting, which is currently in development. Its initial aim is to support compilation from C and C++,[1] though other source languages are also intended to be supported.

Design

WebAssembly is a portable stack machine[2] which is designed to be faster to parse than JavaScript, as well as faster to execute.[1]

History

WebAssembly was first announced on 17 June 2015[3] and on 15 March 2016 was demonstrated executing Unity's Angry Bots in Firefox,[4] Chromium, Google Chrome,[5] and Microsoft Edge.[6]

Development

The initial implementation of WebAssembly support in browsers will be based on asm.js[7] and PNaCl.[8] After the minimum viable product (MVP) release, there are plans to support garbage collection[9] which would make WebAssembly a compilation target for garbage collected programming languages like Java and C#. The team working on WebAssembly includes people from Mozilla, Microsoft, Google and Apple.[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "WebAssembly High-Level Goals". GitHub / WebAssembly / design. 11 December 2015.
  2. "Design Rationale". GitHub / WebAssembly / design. 1 October 2016.
  3. "Launch bug". GitHub / WebAssembly / design. 11 June 2015.
  4. Wagner, Luke (14 March 2016). "A WebAssembly Milestone: Experimental Support in Multiple Browsers". Mozilla Hacks.
  5. Thompson, Seth (15 March 2016). "Experimental support for WebAssembly in V8". V8 Blog.
  6. Zhu, Limin (15 March 2016). "Previewing WebAssembly experiments in Microsoft Edge". Microsoft Edge dev blog.
  7. "WebAssembly: a binary format for the web". ②ality – JavaScript and more. 18 June 2015.
  8. 1 2 Bright, Peter (18 June 2015). "The Web is getting its bytecode: WebAssembly". Ars Technica. Condé Nast.
  9. "WebAssembly/design". GitHub. Retrieved 28 December 2015.

External links

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