this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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Programming

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What's stopping WebAssembly from effectively replacing JavaScript? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by popcar2@programming.dev to c/programming@programming.dev
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I've been wondering about this for a while and haven't really found a great answer for it. From what I understand, WASM is:

  • Faster than JavaScript

  • Has a smaller file size

  • Can be compiled to from pretty much any programming language

  • Can be used outside of the browser easier thanks to WASI

So why aren't most websites starting to try replacing (most) JS with WASM now that it's supported by every major browser? The most compelling argument I heard is that WASM can't manipulate the DOM and a lot of people don't want to deal with gluing JS code to it, but aside from that, is there something I'm missing?

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[–] coltorl@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don’t know what you mean by WASM being a subset of javascript (maybe you mean AssemblyScript?) You can still program in higher level languages like C and have it compile into WASM as one would compile C to assembly.