Hard to speculate when they get access to the DOM API if they'd be massively more powerful. I do think that if they could avoid the overhead of going through JavaScript bindings there are good improvements to be made. I wouldn't be surprised if it could be really good for app like experience. However, if I were guessing I wouldn't expect this reality for at least 5 years.
In the next couple years there will likely be some big improvements but to fully realize this is going to take a while. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see this fully happen this decade. That sounds callous but like Web Components have been in the works for 10 years. WASM has been going for about 4 years now. Which is why I'm unclear if it is more likely JavaScript becomes more dominant than ever during this time and WASM ends up just a way to continue for it to take over traditional backend services. I'm basically saying I'm more likely to bet on the speed proprietary solutions(like a new backend platform) move at than that of the Browser platform which basically dictates the speed WASM can be adopted.
In terms of size I imagine WASM doesn't end up being smaller. However it's possible there is less parsing/execution overhead that makes up for that. I'd be surprised if it has any meaningful impact on this initial load scenario. So for traditional websites/MPAs I wouldn't really hold my breath. We might see exploration there but likely only after what I wrote about above.
I find this discussion interesting. I want to share my findings on the future of WASM, but I realised that they are just a tad too much for a comment here (bullet points and all). So here are my Notes on the future of WASM and JS (2 min read, most important facts, with sources). FWIW.
avoid the overhead of going through JavaScript bindings
See esp. the Web IDL bindings proposal which would allow WebAssembly to directly access the native web API’s (which allow operating on the DOM). Imagine the possibilities...
Yeah that's pretty much what I've seen. A good summary. I'm aware of these proposals but these things take years. So what I was getting at is I give it about equal chance that JavaScript to WASM compilation gets in a good place before those proposals get implemented. To be performant enough to push JavaScript further into the backend before it's practical to take WASM approaches mainstream in the browser.
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Hard to speculate when they get access to the DOM API if they'd be massively more powerful. I do think that if they could avoid the overhead of going through JavaScript bindings there are good improvements to be made. I wouldn't be surprised if it could be really good for app like experience. However, if I were guessing I wouldn't expect this reality for at least 5 years.
In the next couple years there will likely be some big improvements but to fully realize this is going to take a while. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see this fully happen this decade. That sounds callous but like Web Components have been in the works for 10 years. WASM has been going for about 4 years now. Which is why I'm unclear if it is more likely JavaScript becomes more dominant than ever during this time and WASM ends up just a way to continue for it to take over traditional backend services. I'm basically saying I'm more likely to bet on the speed proprietary solutions(like a new backend platform) move at than that of the Browser platform which basically dictates the speed WASM can be adopted.
In terms of size I imagine WASM doesn't end up being smaller. However it's possible there is less parsing/execution overhead that makes up for that. I'd be surprised if it has any meaningful impact on this initial load scenario. So for traditional websites/MPAs I wouldn't really hold my breath. We might see exploration there but likely only after what I wrote about above.
I find this discussion interesting. I want to share my findings on the future of WASM, but I realised that they are just a tad too much for a comment here (bullet points and all). So here are my Notes on the future of WASM and JS (2 min read, most important facts, with sources). FWIW.
See esp. the Web IDL bindings proposal which would allow WebAssembly to directly access the native web API’s (which allow operating on the DOM). Imagine the possibilities...
Yeah that's pretty much what I've seen. A good summary. I'm aware of these proposals but these things take years. So what I was getting at is I give it about equal chance that JavaScript to WASM compilation gets in a good place before those proposals get implemented. To be performant enough to push JavaScript further into the backend before it's practical to take WASM approaches mainstream in the browser.