Standardizing WASI: A system interface to run WebAssembly outside the web

Re:Standardizing WASI: A system interface to run WebAssembly... by imtringued on Thursday March 28, 2019 @05:45AM (#19510649)

So you're saying the JVM wasn't good enough so they had to make a better one? Why does the HN crowd constantly compare WASM with the "obsolete" JVM, when even the creator admits that it is not adequate?

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Re:Standardizing WASI: A system interface to run WebAssembly... by sitkack on Friday March 29, 2019 @05:33PM (#19525862)

JVM could have been WASM but they made some unfortunate design decisions. They started as a target only for Java, GC, signed types. WASM started from the bottom, floats and ints (signed and unsigned) with plans to add GC, threads etc later.

It isn’t that the JVM is bad, it is that it isn’t the universal compilation target that WASM is.

Remember folks getting excited about LLVMIR, Bitcode? WASM is this but with a clean sandbox and minimal tractable semantics.

The JVM is awesome, esp with Graalvm and Truffle. WASM is the next evolutionary step.

[ Parent | on HN ]