WebAssembly

WebAssembly, also known as Wasm or WA, is a standard developed by the W3C for creating software that runs in the web browser. Unlike JavaScript, WebAssembly is compiled software that runs at near-native speeds on your CPU (central processing unit).

WebAssembly programs can be written in other languages, such as C, that can then be compiled to WebAssembly bytecode. WebAssembly is not meant to replace JavaScript, but to run alongside it for programs (or parts of programs) that need to run as fast as possible.

WebAssembly history

Development of WebAssembly began in 2015, based largely on asm.js, a JavaScript implementation of assembly language. In March 2017, the first minimum viable product was released. WebAssembly is supported by the current version of all major web browsers.

The official WebAssembly website is webassembly.org.

Languages that compile to Wasm

The following languages can compile to WebAssembly:

• C
• C++
• Forth
• Lua
• Rust

Languages with Wasm compilers in development

Compilation to Wasm is in development for the following languages:

• .Net
• C#
• D
• Elixir
• Go
• Haskell
• Java
• JavaScript
• Kotlin
• Nim
• OCaml
• Perl
• PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)
• Python
• Prolog
• Ruby
• Scheme

Programming terms, Web