Universal Binaries Using WASM

Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by afiori on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @09:09AM (#19254380)

It is close in the wording but very different in almost every other sense. wasm pushes for many indipendent implementation, it is meant to be very minimal and importantly it is made to be embeddable. In a sense it is closer to lua than Java.

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by runako on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @10:48AM (#19255218)

At the risk of jumping into this, Java was intended to be small (small enough to run on processors that were below PC-class in the 1990s) and embeddable.

https://www.javaworld.com/article/2073700/mobile-java/mobile...

The idea of Java running on devices goes back AFAICR to the very beginning of the language. I remember the "Java everywhere" slogan and initiatives to put Java into every device. Java Card was a version of Java designed to run on smart cards. If memory serves, these were all design goals of the Java platform in the early 90s.

(Remarkably, this was all well before Linux really took off, before the Internet was ubiquitous, and when the most sophisticated electronics most households owned was a VHS player.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Card

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by afiori on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @03:13PM (#19257923)

There is indeed a risk that Wasm will end up bloated and fail at its main purpose.

Supporters hope that the web process will prevent excessive features. Actually the dual presence JS/wams will reduce the pressure on JS to be a strong compilation target.

I agree that (almost) no single aspect of wasm is new, but it has a lot of good points.

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by jayd16 on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:24AM (#19255593)

Java also attempted to be all those things.

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by afiori on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @03:19PM (#19257975)

(this will be slightly a rant)

So what? Java failed, for good reason, wasm has essentially solved all the reason why Java failed.

Almost everything of success used old ideas.

It is like saying the Wright brothers that Da Vinci already failed building flying machines; pretending that engines were not a relevant difference.

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by jayd16 on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @05:57PM (#19259181)

That's different than your previous comment. Wasm might certainly be better than Java but in terms of what you listed Java had very similar goals.

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by pjmlp on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @02:43PM (#19257639)

A Java subset runs on almost every SIM card, credit card chip and Intel ME out there.

So no, it isn't closer to lua than Java.

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by afiori on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @03:07PM (#19257874)

But that is basically useless for almost everyone.

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by pjmlp on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @03:15PM (#19257944)

It is available to anyone that can get their hands on pile of blank cards and the respective SDK.

With 5 minutes Google search effort:

https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/java-chip-card.html

https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/embedded/javacard/do...

https://javacardforum.com/

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by afiori on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @04:53AM (#19262175)

Yes, but that is the definition of a nice.

Also I suspect that Java cards use a stripped down version of Java.

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Re:Universal Binaries Using WASM by pjmlp on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @06:06AM (#19262443)

I explicitly said subset on my comment.

WASM on its current form also only allows for a stripped down version of many languages.

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