Have you ever wondered how you can run a complex application like Photoshop via the web at photoshop.adobe.com without any installation or configuration? Have you ever seen high-end video games being played in a web browser and wondered how that’s possible? The web applications that we know today are typically built in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frameworks like React JS, Next JS, and Angular. However, they have their limitations; you can’t use JavaScript alone to create tools like Figma or programs like Photoshop or high-end games. These applications are usually developed in programming languages like C, C++, Rust, or Go and run as standalone executable desktop applications. So, how do you port these applications to work online within browsers? That's where WebAssembly comes in.
WebAssembly is a binary instruction format for a virtual machine that is designed to be executed within a web browser. It is a low-level, stack-based bytecode language that allows developers to write high-performance code that can run in a variety of web environments.
WebAssembly is designed to be a portable, secure, and efficient platform for running code on the web. It is supported by all major web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari.
WebAssembly is often used as a compilation target for other languages, allowing developers to write code in a high-level language such as C, C++, or Rust, and then compile it to WebAssembly. This enables developers to write high-performance web applications that can execute code at near-native speeds.
One of the key benefits of WebAssembly is its security model, which provides a sandboxed execution environment that prevents code from accessing resources outside of its designated scope. This makes it possible to run untrusted code in a safe and secure manner, without risking the security of the host system.
Here are some use cases of WebAssembly:
- High-performance web applications: With WebAssembly, developers can write performance-critical parts of web applications in languages like C++, Rust, and Go, and run that code in web browsers. This enables developers to build web applications that can handle complex computations and large amounts of data with ease.
- Game development: WebAssembly can be used to develop high-performance games that can run in web browsers. Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine have started adding support for WebAssembly, enabling game developers to write games in C++ and other languages and run them in web browsers.
- Video and image processing: WebAssembly can be used to write high-performance video and image processing algorithms that can run directly in web browsers. This enables web applications to perform complex video and image processing tasks without requiring server-side processing.
- Cryptography: WebAssembly can be used to write high-performance cryptographic algorithms that can run directly in web browsers. This enables web applications to perform secure communication and authentication without requiring server-side processing.
- Machine learning: WebAssembly can be used to write high-performance machine learning algorithms that can run directly in web browsers. This enables web applications to perform complex machine learning tasks without requiring server-side processing.
Overall, WebAssembly is a powerful technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way we build and run applications on the web. Its performance, portability, and security features make it an attractive option for developers who want to build high-performance web applications that can run across a variety of platforms and devices.
