WebAssembly and the Death of JavaScript

For more than 20 years JavaScript has been the only 'native' language of the web. That's all changed with the release of WebAssembly. This talk will look at what WebAssembly is, why it matters and crucially what it means for JavaScript and the future of web development. JavaScript brought interactivity to the web more than 20 years ago, and despite numerous challengers, it is still the only language supported by browser. However, as those 20 years have passed we've moved from adding a little interactivity to largely static sites, to creating complex JavaScript-heavy single page applications. Throughout this journey, the way we use JavaScript itself has also changed. Gone are the days of writing simple code snippets that are run directly in the browser. Nowadays we transpile, minify, tree-shake and more, treating the JavaScript virtual machine as a compilation target.

The problem is, JavaScript isn't a very good compilation target, because it simply wasn't designed to be one.

This talk will look at what's wrong with the way we are using JavaScript today and why we need WebAssembly. It will delve into the internals, giving a quick tour of the WebAssembly instruction set, memory and security model, before moving on to the more practical aspects of using it with Rust, C++ and JavaScript. Finally we'll do some crystal-ball gazing and see what the future of this rapidly evolving technology might hold.

Talk by Colin Eberhardt at the JS Monthly London Meetup.

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[Kowbinho]

The guy did a nice talk, with a bit of a catchy title, and everyone down here is commenting how JS won't die, like it is not his own conclusion.
We really should learn to react to an idea, rather than a catchphrase.

[johnhschuster]

JavaScript is dead, you know how many times I've seen this tagline. Just like the videos that the end of the world is coming... next year .

[ouss]

const niceJoke = "Death of JavaScript" ;

[whatthefunction]

or... we stop running crappy spaghetti js with 100 packages tacked on.

[enodeno]

For all the idiots talking about JS not dying...

Dude, there are two javascript: 1. one that we write (now mostly people write typescript or other variant specific to framework) 2. Pure vanilla javascript target
We stopped writing pure javascript long back and javascript remained only as a compilation target as described.
The title actually mean The death of JavaScript as a compilation target

Now you might write in typescript or Rust or C, all will be compiled to WASM (I mean in near future)
Who knows, with WASI, WASM will become new platform independent target for other programming language.

[Simbatronix]

"WebAssembly struggles and the constant rebirth of JavaScript" would be a more appropriate title.

[christianjamesguevarra]

Lol so many js people feel threathened in the comments

[Ivosein]

As I work with visual basic for my job I got attached to, it is hard to imagine that javascript will die

[_yogeshsingh]

Very insightful talk by an excellent Speaker. Amazing. 👏👏

[SaikatDey]

My love will keep JS alive in this cruel world. 😁

[Crux]

Web assembly and the Evolution of JavaScript That sounds better.

[JohnSlegers]

Here at Luciad (now Hexagon), we still use Emscripten for one of our flagship products (LuciadRIA) to compile our in-house C++ & OpenGl based GIS mapping engine to WebGl-based asm.js code, which is then used as a visualization layer by hand-written JavaScript.

[kenrow]

Developer's humour is highly underrated. WTF extensions? I died rotfl there...lol

[ZajoSTi]

Just stick to what has been deeply established, survived the test of time and you will never have to worry. C/C++, Java, Python, PHP and JavaScript.

[aspektx]

Ironically, binary responses to new tech are not the best approach.

More options are always better for addressing the varied puzzles one encounters in development.

[kristypolymath]

So .... how does one get started with WebAssembly using Python? I've watched maybe three or four videos on the matter, before this one, and walked away without a clue. It seems that it's too new....everyone is pumping up WASM, but there isn't anything to use right now.

[timmyanderson]

Please kill it. JS is a terrible 'language'. No real types and type checks, primitive exception mechanism, bizarre semantics (conversions for instance), need of TS or other translators to make the code less error prone. Welcome back to 90ties...As a C#/C++ developer I hope I get more options to write my code for web browsers than that interpreted mess that always reminds me the ancient times of Basic language on my 8-bits Atari...Web development should be moved into 21th century.

[Isimbot]

Web Assembly is definitely relevant here at the end of 2020, but JS is nowhere close to kicking the bucket. Anyone with opinions on why other languages have not started to compete, if they could theoretically be compiled to Web Assembly?

[kamaboko]

Sort of like the "paperless office" that was predicted....uh....30 years ago? I don't know about you, but I still see a Hell of a lot of paper around the office.

[SimpMcSimpy]

What's with all these JS fan boys in comment section ?
Come on guys, do we really want to have JS running web application in 21 century ? It is archaic language and we need WA to finally give us freedom in choosing how to program web.
The only reason why JS is so widely spread is the fact we didn't have any other option (if you ignore Silverlight or some other failed attempts) !!!
Now we do :) ... Web Assembly... Thank You God !!!