One of the things that killed Flash was not being supported on iOS while Wasm runs fine (and actually pretty well!) on iOS which is pretty good for reach.
On the other side, not being able to run on iOS didn't kill any server side language (think Java.) And Java client side (Android) is very different from Java server side, down to the sets of developers.
Currently WASM is both a client side and server side runtime. It's not clear where it will be in 5 or 10 years. I don't see a compelling server side story. Why WASM and not C#, Java, Node, Python, Rails (I intentionally don't write Ruby) or whatever any of us is using now with its standard runtime?
> Why WASM and not C#, Java, Node, Python, Rails (I intentionally don't write Ruby) or whatever any of us is using now with its standard runtime?
I don't understand why you use a framework instead of a language there, but it seems to be in the same category of mistake as asking “why <compilation target> and not <thing that can be compiled to that target>”. They aren't mutually exclusive alternatives.
Say you are a C# developer and there is a C / C++ / Rust thing you want to use as a dependency.
Well, WASM is your interop layer. Same with Node.js, Deno, Go etc. You can start to share alot more code with a solid interop layer that WASM presents.
Personally I'm not super familiar with its benefits if any on the server and would actually not use it on the server myself and just build binaries directly, probably using Go. But I've seen some references to Wasm on the serverside for something similar to containerization or loading plugins. It does seem less obvious to me than the client side.
What makes you say Wasm is a server side runtime / imply that it's meant to be one?
iOS was the final nail in the coffin, but Flash had been having years of an endless flood of severe security problems. It was having major problems hanging on prior to Apple playing their hand.
Losing Flash's excellent authoring tools is still a hard blow though.
pmontra|3 years ago
Currently WASM is both a client side and server side runtime. It's not clear where it will be in 5 or 10 years. I don't see a compelling server side story. Why WASM and not C#, Java, Node, Python, Rails (I intentionally don't write Ruby) or whatever any of us is using now with its standard runtime?
dragonwriter|3 years ago
I don't understand why you use a framework instead of a language there, but it seems to be in the same category of mistake as asking “why <compilation target> and not <thing that can be compiled to that target>”. They aren't mutually exclusive alternatives.
no_wizard|3 years ago
Say you are a C# developer and there is a C / C++ / Rust thing you want to use as a dependency.
Well, WASM is your interop layer. Same with Node.js, Deno, Go etc. You can start to share alot more code with a solid interop layer that WASM presents.
nikki93|3 years ago
What makes you say Wasm is a server side runtime / imply that it's meant to be one?
unknown|3 years ago
[deleted]
Groxx|3 years ago
Losing Flash's excellent authoring tools is still a hard blow though.