Overview of WebAssembly technology with status on 2017. w3c

1. ITERA UKRAINE 2017
WEB
ASSEMBLY
OLEKSANDR SKACHKOV @alSkachkov

2. ABOUT ME
• Itera’s Software Architect
• Itera’s FrontEnd Tech Lead
• WebKit contributor from 2015 & JS hacker
• Twitter: @alSkachkov
• Email: oleksandr.skachkov@itera.no

3. WEB ASSEMBLY
GAME CHANGER
• What was before
• WASM – why it is needed
• WASM – what is next

4. HOW JS EVOLVE
• Netscape Navigator 2.0 in 1995:
• JS was born
• NPAPI – for Java plugins
• IE 3.0 - ActiveX
• Flash player initial release - 1996
• HTML5
• JiT – in modern JS engines - 2008
• Aggressive optimization algorithms and ASM.js

5. WHAT IS WRONG WITH JS?
• Performance
• Access to OS features

6. THE STRENGTH IS A WEAKNESS
• Easy to learn
• Executes in browser environment
• Dynamic typing
=
• LOW PERFORMANCE!

7. HOW BROWSER EXECUTE JS

8. HOW BROWSER EXECUTE JS

9. HOW BROWSER EXECUTE JS

10. HOW TO SOLVE BY TOOLS
• Frameworks
• Minifiers
• Optimizers – Prepack
• Rules and Hucks

11. TRIES TO SOLVE IN BROWSER

12. • WebAssembly, a bytecode standard for
web browsers
• Announced in 17 June 2015
• Will be developed by major Browsers
• Developed by WebAssembly Working
Group
WebAssembly - Game Changer

13. • Build target
• Binary format
• Support integration with JS
• Close IR of the JS Engines
• WASM 1.2x speed of the native code
What is WebAssembly

14. WEBASSEMBLY IS BUILD TARGET
• Build target – for C/C++/Rust

15. WEBASSEMBLY IS BUILD TARGET
• Build target – for C/C++/Rust
• Used intermediate representation – S
expression WAT/WAST

16. WEBASSEMBLY IS BUILD TARGET
• Build target – for C/C++/Rust
• Used intermediate representation – S
expression WAT/WAST
• Binary format - WASM

17. HOW BROWSER EXECUTE WASM
JS
WASM

18. INTERACTION WITH JAVASCRIPT
We can use JS function in WASM and WASM function in JS

19. INTERACTION WITH JAVASCRIPT
We can use JS function in WASM and WASM function in JS

20. USAGE SCENARIOS
• Write faster version of the specific application
• Using existing C libraries in browser
• Reuse algorithm from service side
• Distribute whole application as WebAsm

21. SECURITY
• Limit set of operation
• Controlled operation with memory

22. CAN WE USE WEBASSEMBLY?
Global support 57%
Yes we can

23. CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE
Current
• MVP
• No finalized spec (Experimental feature)
Future:
• GC
• Threads
• Tools

24. EXAMLES
• Video editor https://d2jta7o2zej4pf.cloudfront.net/
• Game: http://webassembly.org/demo/Tanks/
• Garden for Mozilla: https://s3.amazonaws.com/mozilla-
games/ZenGarden/EpicZenGarden.html
• TypeScript for WA: https://github.com/AssemblyScript/assemblyscript

25. QUESTIONS?