WASI 0.2.0 and Why It Matters

Sadly, still no Framebuffer API for WASI GUI apps (https://github.com/WebAssembly/WASI/issues/174).

I have always suspected that sort of thing is somehow blocked by Google because it would make mean web assembly runtimes don't need web browsers.

Although now that there is actually a significant update to WASI, perhaps it's possible that they are just actually that slow? Or maybe both are true.

Probably I am just a "conspiracy nut". I mean I definitely am, but in this case it might just be paranoia.

About Wasm and WASI, I'll try ( and probably fail ) to escape the HN stereotype so please forgive me.

I've been more of less following this for a decade ( since asm.js ), I still fail to see a practical use for this. And I mean a generalized use in real products and systems that stand the test of being an actual economically viable product, not cool demos which running Doom is probably the best one from a technical perspective.

For SO MUCH effort over a decade I feel it's more and more a nerd kingdom where it's full "of cool things" and much more work on creating and resolving problems that were solved years and decades ago and I still miss the point of all of this, I get the "big promise" but 10 years have passed and still nothing.

Also, I see a lot of Rust ( and I mean a lot ) attached to Wasm. Sorry but it's not going to happen, it just isn't. Rust is a systems programming language and Wasm has been pretty much another eternal tech demo. Real "mid" - as the gen-z says - use cases and products are needed and Rust is not going to cut it for a general product audience. This whole thing seems more like a "Run Rust in the browser" than a common runtime to run every language in the browser.

And since "running stuff on the browser" is kinda of old news, these new "wasm runtimes" ( which I get it and support ) in reality are basically a basic shitty proto-JVM.. again what's the point of all of this having spend 10 years?

The "devx" ( always a sucker for a new marketing term :) ) is HORRIBLE! Ever tried to compile a moderately complex ( and useful ) C program to wasm?

On a positive note, I wish success to Wasm/WASI because it's a cool idea and can open a lot of doors. If not for the actual reality and implementation of things, I'm optimistic about the general idea.

Sorry for my "ignorance" and if I hurt anyone's feelings.

I have had the same experience compiling for WASM. It's always a bunch of commenting out code that doesn't compile. Thankfully we have other things backend side. I'm guessing people writing Rust are having a better time with WASM.

As far as WASM going away: Sadly, I think browsers are just going to make up a larger and larger share of what computers do.

One realistic use case I’m currently exploring is game scripting with Wasm. I don’t want to write Lua. And I don’t want modders to be compelled to use some specific scripting language.

If I use Wasm in my native game then it’s easy for modders and others to create their own scripts and mods that can then be compiled to machine code by the game and safely executed on others’ computers. They don’t have to trust the modder because Wasm’s sandboxed design protects against a lot of bad behaviors.

It’s not so much that Wasm is totally unique here. Rather, to me it has many of the features and attributes I’m looking for in one single package/technology.