Bailey Hayes and Sean Isom delve into the origins of WebAssembly, its potential beyond the browser, and the Component Model breaking language barriers. They discuss comparisons to Docker, secure default settings, and upcoming events. The podcast explores WebAssembly's role in web development, low adoption rates, and expanding use cases outside browsers. They highlight its performance benefits, language ecosystem unification, and simplified application deployment.
WebAssembly Component Model revolutionizes language ecosystem for cross-language ideal.
WebAssembly expands to cloud computing for versatile application deployment across various platforms.
Deep dives
The Evolution of WebAssembly
WebAssembly has evolved from its early days of Asm.js, with a component model set to revolutionize the language ecosystem by creating a cross-language ideal allowing libraries to target Web Assembly components. This model enables easier integration of different languages' capabilities and enhances composability, virtualization, and isolation guarantees.
WebAssembly's Impact on Cloud Computing
WebAssembly's future impact on cloud computing appears extensive, with the potential to run compute where it best fits, transcending browser, IoT devices, and server-side applications. The ability to outsource scheduling and dependency concerns while retaining robust component isolation signifies a paradigm shift towards flexible and efficient application deployment.
Driving Adoption and Addressing Industry Needs
Despite initial hype, WebAssembly establishes genuine value as it finds practical adoption in a variety of applications. It offers extensive benefits, such as reducing unnecessary CPU cycles and minimizing environmental impact. The industry awaits the adoption of standards like Waze to drive further innovation and solidify its value proposition.
WebAssembly's Future as a Crucial Technology
WebAssembly transcends hype to become a fundamental technology delivering real value across various ecosystems. Its potential to streamline development, enhance portability, and minimize setup complexities positions it as a pivotal technology reshaping the landscape of application development through its unifying capabilities.
In this episode, Colin Eberhardt is joined by Bailey Hayes from Cosmonic and Sean Isom from Adobe – between them, they have a wealth of WebAssembly experience and insights.
They start by discussing the early days of WebAssembly, and where it all began, in the browser. They debate the infamous tweet that compares WebAssembly to Docker, and look at the future promise of the Component Model, which aims to break down language barriers.
Given the amount of activity happening in the WebAssembly/WASI/Component Model space, there are a few upcoming events you might be interested in: