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WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

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51–60 of 313 posts

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#51

Docker is useful because I can throw any old POSIX library into a container and it will work in the cloud. How does WASM help here?

It is a bit more involved (getting easier by the day) but you can do the same AND run it anywhere from a browser to an IoT device to ... a container :)

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#52
Despite the sandboxing one still cannot run untrsuted WASM code in the same process as trusted code due to hardware bugs. CPU vendors are not going to fix those anytime soon. Their message is to always use separated address space for security isolation.

And since one need an external process in any case, native containers wins as they are faster by factor of two over WASM.

EDIT:

It does not even make sense to use WASM inside a native container as an extra security layer. With the overhead of WASM one can just put a container inside a VM and still run things faster.

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#53
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, those that act like WebAssembly is reinvinting the world kind of do. And applications get tied to the WebAssembly ecosystem, it is also a single one.

One way of looking at it that helped me wrap my head of why “this time is different”, is that Wasm is not so much as a language but a compilation target (as say x86) so it can really run anything

The JVM executes Java bytecode, which is a compilation target for Java and many other languages. In this regard, architecturally it is exactly the same.

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#54

If WASM+WASI existed in 2008, we wouldn't have needed to create Docker. That's how important it is. WebAssembly on the server is the future of computing. - Solomon Hykes (co-founder of Docker) https://twitter.com/solomonstre/status/1111004913222324225

There are some other aspects that docker cannot be replaced.

For example, making sure build works accross different platforms and machines. There are too many ways that something may break, incorrect SDK versions, missing dependencies etc. Docker makes sure the OS (container) to be setup correctly to handle the build.

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#55
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, those that act like WebAssembly is reinvinting the world kind of do. And applications get tied to the WebAssembly ecosystem, it is also a single one.

What's wrong with a "JVM but for everyone who isn't a Java developer"? If the model works, why shouldn't there be competitors and wide spread adoption?

Nothing, that is after all how CLR was designed, just lets not pretend it is something new.

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#56
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, he just had to make use of JVM or CLR based application servers instead. That is what this whole trend is all about, replicating application servers with WASM. Every time I need to dive into k8s stuff, I can only think "this was so much easier when configuring WebSphere and EAR deployments".

a) Kubernetes is far simpler and more consistent to me than WebSphere/EAR. b) Kubernetes is the platform as well as the application server.

The amount of YAML spaghetti I have to deal with says otherwise.

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#58
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this statement is true, there is no need for Docker, because JVM+JAR existed in 2008! Docker can do more than WASM or JVM+JAR: it can run non-WASM and non-JVM apps like PostgreSQL, etc...

You can compile any C / C++ app down to wasm. In fact that’s the raison d’être of the technology: to provide a portable safe way to run binaries. Here is a link to Postgres in wasm for instance: https://supabase.com/blog/postgres-wasm . The way it works is that instead of outputting assembly for a given architecture in the backend compiler, it outputs wasm instructions that are designed to map all architectures, not…

Here, have your C and C++ compiler for JVM bytecode from 2006.

http://nestedvm.ibex.org/

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#59

If WASM+WASI existed in 2008, we wouldn't have needed to create Docker. That's how important it is. WebAssembly on the server is the future of computing. - Solomon Hykes (co-founder of Docker) https://twitter.com/solomonstre/status/1111004913222324225

"We put all eggs in WASM basked, please adopt it!" - guy that founded a thing the rest of industry just did better before he was able to capitalize on it.

Re: WebAssembly: Docker Without Containers

#60
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this statement is true, there is no need for Docker, because JVM+JAR existed in 2008! Docker can do more than WASM or JVM+JAR: it can run non-WASM and non-JVM apps like PostgreSQL, etc...

> JVM+JAR existed JVM can only run apps written for it: Docker & WASM don't have that limitation. > it can run non-WASM and non-JVM apps like PostgreSQL, etc... but WASM can run Postgres

C and C++ compiler for the JVM from 2006, http://nestedvm.ibex.org/
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