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Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

blog.chromium.org

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Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#71

Post by lacampbell »

k__ wrote: post #46
sjrd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think WebAssembly will become more common than JavaScript anytime soon. And even when it will be, it means the tooling will have become so good that you won't even have to think about WebAssembly. That will be left to the people who create compilers to WebAssembly. Hopefully you'll just use whatever language your org/team/etc. uses, and have it compiled to JS or WebAssembly as is most appropriate for said lan…

I guess the first ones jumping on the WebAssembly wagon will be Web developers, so we will probably get WASM modules written in languages they see appropriate, when JS doesn't cut it anymore. I guess it will be Rust or Go. Rust because of Cargo (for npm users a big +) and Mozilla (good marketing of Rust). Go because of Google (also a Web company with good marketing) and because I read some Node.js developers already…

I think if the web assembly experiment succeeds it will spawn new languages that become wildly popular. The web is huge, and client side programming is just a different animal.

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#72

Post by bpicolo »

eeZi wrote: post #21

This one I'm fine with since WebAssembly is a worthy replacement, but I'm still annoyed at Google discontinuing Chrome Apps. Some examples of specialized apps I use all the time that would require a native app otherwise: - Signal Desktop - TeamViewer - Postman - SSH client - Cleanflight drone configuration tool It was one of the best things that happened to Linux desktops in a long time and removing it hurts users an…

Postman recently released a Native App, fwiw

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#73

Post by douche »

marcosdumay wrote: post #41
Crontab wrote: post #24

Is WebAssembley going to turn into yet another web technology that can be used by websites in order to track us or to annoy us with advertising? I'm asking because every time something new is introduced, it feels like it ends up being used to abuse users (Javascript, XSS, Cookies, HTML5 Video).

It doesn't do anything that Javascript didn't already do. By the way, why do you think HTML5 is a problem?

Not the OP, but with HTML5 video in modern browsers, you can't simply escape obnoxious auto-play videos by disabling/never installing RealPlayer/Shockwave/Flash/etc.

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#74

Post by eeZi »

limeblack wrote: post #60
eeZi wrote: post #21

This one I'm fine with since WebAssembly is a worthy replacement, but I'm still annoyed at Google discontinuing Chrome Apps. Some examples of specialized apps I use all the time that would require a native app otherwise: - Signal Desktop - TeamViewer - Postman - SSH client - Cleanflight drone configuration tool It was one of the best things that happened to Linux desktops in a long time and removing it hurts users an…

Forgive me if I misunderstand but won't android apps work on Chrome OS devices well at least the newer ones anyways?

But that's only Chrome OS.

Chrome Apps were great because they worked on all (desktop) platforms.

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#75

Post by dragonwriter »

camus2 wrote: post #54
coolmitch wrote: post #11

As a web developer working primarily in JS, what should I be learning now to stay relevant/up-to-date once WebAssembly is more common? Are we going to see more web stuff built with c++, like the dsp example in this blog post?

WebAssembly is a medium for ASM.js apps, and ASM.js apps are mainly C and C++ . You have to learn C and C++ period.

> You have to learn C and C++ period.

You can program in wasm's text format (the actual assembly language) directly, if you want, and you can program in anything that compiles to wasm. C/C++ have the most developed toolchains for higher (than wasm itself) level languages, for now, but that should open up.

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#76

Post by lacampbell »

choward wrote: post #49
Crontab wrote: post #24

Is WebAssembley going to turn into yet another web technology that can be used by websites in order to track us or to annoy us with advertising? I'm asking because every time something new is introduced, it feels like it ends up being used to abuse users (Javascript, XSS, Cookies, HTML5 Video).

I agree. It seems like most of the extra horsepower we have these days is used for tracking on behalf of a company instead of features that are useful for the end user.

Well, any powers can be used for good or evil.

The great thing about shitty websites is that I can opt to not visit them.

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#77

Post by jfbastien »

vvanders wrote: post #57
withjive wrote: post #13

Looks like Mozilla won this fight. When Mozilla didn't accept PNaCl and Pepper API proposed by Google, Mozilla went down the ASM path which now led us to Web Assembly being the general way forward.

Yup, when you consider that WASM can be polyfilled with Asm.js it's pretty obvious where things were headed.

Except with all browser vendors being involved with WebAssembly, efficient polyfill-ability hasn't been a goal for a while.

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#78

Post by puzzle »

wcummings wrote: post #64
eeZi wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome OS has no native SSH client, but Google published a NaCL based SSH client: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec... It's useful outside of Chrome OS if you have a security perimeter based on TLS with ACLs and auditing already in place and you want to use it for SSH as well: https://github.com/zyclonite/nassh-relay https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/assets... Google use…

I wouldn't call it a "Linux Desktop" if you can't run a standard SSH client. Chrome OS is it's own beast.

In some ways, and if everything aligns, ChromeOS is actually better:

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msg/chromium-hter...

But "if everything aligns" == "only if you're inside Google".

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#79

Post by Crontab »

duskwuff wrote: post #67
marcosdumay wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't do anything that Javascript didn't already do. By the way, why do you think HTML5 is a problem?

The suggestion I got was that "HTML5 Video" was the subject. Which still doesn't make sense; the alternatives which it replaced (Flash, QuickTime, WMV, Java-based video players...) were all radically worse, and much more abuseable.

HTML5 Video is just an example of shitty browser behavior, as for some reason, every web browser maker seems to think that autoplay videos are great. They're not because sites are abusing it.

Worst, some sites these days will waiting until you've scrolled down a bit before they start playing a video, leaving the user to locate it and stop it.

As for Flash, it was indeed bad, but at least I had the option of not installing it.

Re: Goodbye PNaCl, Hello WebAssembly

#80

Post by eeZi »

puzzle wrote: post #78
wcummings wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call it a "Linux Desktop" if you can't run a standard SSH client. Chrome OS is it's own beast.

In some ways, and if everything aligns, ChromeOS is actually better: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msg/chromium-hter... But "if everything aligns" == "only if you're inside Google".

Hah, that's a funny thread. I've heard that Google is using Chromebooks for engineers with production access.

Makes a lot of sense sense since Chrome OS is much easier to secure than a normal Linux distribution.

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