WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#1

Post by bpierre » Thu, May 20, 2021, 4:10 PM UTC

WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser
blog.stackblitz.com

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#2

Post by ericmsimons » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

Hi all- CEO of StackBlitz/author of this blog post here. Happy to answer any questions! (Also, thanks for posting this bpierre!)

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#3

Post by simonw » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

ericmsimons wrote: post #2

Hi all- CEO of StackBlitz/author of this blog post here. Happy to answer any questions! (Also, thanks for posting this bpierre!)

Is this all open source?

I'm fascinated in learning more about how you run a web server with this - the article says "WebContainers include a virtualized TCP network stack that's mapped to your browser's ServiceWorker API" but I'd love to understand a bit more about how that works.

Since this is all done with WebAssembly are you planning on targeting other stacks such as Python? The amount of time I lose helping other people getting their Python development environments to work remains horrifying.

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#4

Post by sigmonsays » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

Are any demo applications created? What is memory usage like for a simple application?

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#5

Post by arodyginc » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

Isn't it awful? Now each smart ass web developer will start sending down scripts with nodejs to enable 'rich' user experience

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#6

Post by ericmsimons » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

sigmonsays wrote: post #4

Are any demo applications created? What is memory usage like for a simple application?

Yep- if you go to https://stackblitz.com you can start a Next.js, GraphQL, etc dev environment in one click.

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#7

Post by nyadesu » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

arodyginc wrote: post #5

Isn't it awful? Now each smart ass web developer will start sending down scripts with nodejs to enable 'rich' user experience

I think that wouldn't be a problem, as long as people get used to containerize what they write

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#8

Post by lucasmullens » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

> Faster than your local environment. Builds complete up to 20% faster and package installs complete >= 5x faster than yarn/npm.

How? Isn't this using npm?

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#9

Post by bpierre » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

ericmsimons wrote: post #2

Hi all- CEO of StackBlitz/author of this blog post here. Happy to answer any questions! (Also, thanks for posting this bpierre!)

You’re welcome :)

Any plan to work towards supporting Firefox & other browsers?

Re: WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in the browser

#10

Post by huggyfee » Thu, May 20, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

I'm trying to get my head around how the networking of it works. Is local.webcontainer.io being overridden somehow on the browser like a hosts file might do? Trying to figure out how I'm hitting that URL from another tab