An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#1

Post by iMuzz » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 3:18 AM UTC

An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript
assemblyscript.org

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#2

Post by duped » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 3:52 AM UTC

Can the authors expound on the reasons why they can't compile their language's string semantics into whatever representation will be used by WASI? Both C++ and Rust support numerous string representations, C++ even more so than Rust.

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#3

Post by amluto » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 3:59 AM UTC

Is there a link to the actual poll or its content?

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#4

Post by ReactiveJelly » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 4:03 AM UTC

> On August 3rd, the WebAssembly CG will poll on whether JavaScript string semantics/encoding are out of scope of the Interface Types proposal. This decision will likely be backed by Google (C++), Mozilla (Rust) and the Bytecode Alliance (WASI), who appear to have a common interest to exclusively promote C++, Rust respectively non-Web semantics and concepts in WebAssembly.

> If the poll passes, which is likely, AssemblyScript will be severely impacted as the tools it has developed must be deprecated due to unresolvable correctness and security problems the decision imposes upon languages utilizing JavaScript-like 16-bit string semantics and its users.

So, the problem is that AssemblyScript wants to keep using UTF-16? I'm not sure I understand.

Is AssemblyScript the thing that lets you hand-write WebAsm?

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#5

Post by syrusakbary » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 4:09 AM UTC

I'm not going to enter the discussion regarding UTF-8 vs WTF-16 for representing strings, as I lack the context to determine which one is the right approach if everything has to fit the same model. However, I think an approach that allows multiple serialization/deserialization mechanisms depending on the host/guest language seems like a nice way to move it forward.

If you want to chime in and retrieve more context, here are some relevant issues:

* https://github.com/WebAssembly/interface-types/issues/135

* https://github.com/WebAssembly/interface-types/issues/136

* https://github.com/WebAssembly/design/issues/1419

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#6

Post by TeaVMFan » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 4:11 AM UTC

This seems to also impact Java and TeaVM, see this post:

https://groups.google.com/g/teavm/c/gpy0JoKYqbU

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#7

Post by jalino23 » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 4:13 AM UTC

this sucks. poor web assemblyscript but i really like the rust way

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#8

Post by rryan » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 4:14 AM UTC

ReactiveJelly wrote: post #4

> On August 3rd, the WebAssembly CG will poll on whether JavaScript string semantics/encoding are out of scope of the Interface Types proposal. This decision will likely be backed by Google (C++), Mozilla (Rust) and the Bytecode Alliance (WASI), who appear to have a common interest to exclusively promote C++, Rust respectively non-Web semantics and concepts in WebAssembly. > If the poll passes, which is likely, Assem…

AIUI, AssemblyScript is a TypeScript-like language that is designed to compile to wasm.

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#9

Post by darig » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 4:16 AM UTC

> "�hank you for your consideration"

LOL... not sure I trust them with character string encoding in the first place.

RIP

Re: An Urgent Notice from AssemblyScript

#10

Post by xvilka » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 4:30 AM UTC

UTF-16 was always a mistake[1]. Good riddance. Time to get it out of LSP specification[2] as well.

[1] http://utf8everywhere.org/

[2] https://github.com/microsoft/language-server-protocol/issues...