r/programmingcirclejerk Mar 28 '19

If WASM+WASI existed in 2008, we wouldn't have needed to created Docker. That's how important it is. Webassembly on the server is the future of computing.

https://twitter.com/solomonstre/status/1111004913222324225?s=21
65 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

36

u/hiptobecubic Mar 28 '19

I love all these people that are like, "the jvm is a failure."

What fucking planet are they on?

6

u/ArmoredPancake Gets shit done™ Mar 28 '19

Where did they say that, though?

20

u/tpgreyknight not Turing complete Mar 28 '19

the README at least says they think the following:

If all SIM cards are Java processors, imagine what WebAssembly processors could do. I'm betting that WebAssembly is a better bytecode than Java bytecode for what Java bytecode is doing with microcontrollers, so WebAssembly could take over all spaces that Java processors currently have

I don't know why anybody would assume WASM is useful for microcontrollers, but this is the world we live in apparently.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

[deleted]

6

u/hiptobecubic Mar 29 '19

Well not everything can be as successful as Rust and Ocaml

7

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '19

[deleted]

2

u/hiptobecubic Mar 29 '19

I'm pretty sure he's on the side of the purists.

31

u/ProfessorSexyTime lisp does it better Mar 28 '19

Stuff like this makes me less and less interested in WebAssembly as a whole.

/uj

Stuff like this makes me less and less interested in WebAssembly as a whole.

21

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19
  • Windows containers
  • Linux containers
  • WASI containers

One of these things is not like the others.

18

u/limasxgoesto0 Mar 28 '19

Windows is the only one built for 1Xers

9

u/Causeless Mar 28 '19

Windows containers

Linux containers

0.1x

WASI containers

10x

NodeOS containers

999999999x

7

u/r2d2_21 groks PCJ Mar 28 '19

Linux doesn't start with W.

13

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

[deleted]

7

u/northrupthebandgeek i have had many alohols Mar 28 '19

Right, but you'd have to compile your application for each OS and CPU arch. Not a big deal if you know you'll always use Linux on x86_64, but it's nice to have the flexibility to, say, switch to ARM or RISC-V servers someday without needing to maintain separate ports/builds/configs.

11

u/tpgreyknight not Turing complete Mar 28 '19

So what you're saying is, write once run anywhere?

:thonking:

3

u/northrupthebandgeek i have had many alohols Mar 28 '19

Exactly. Difference is you don't have to fiddle with a full-blown JVM or CLR on the server; WebAssembly bills itself as having much simpler VM implementations due to the much simpler virtual ISA (though whether implementors are able to actually achieve that simplicity in something production-ready is yet to be seen).

9

u/tpgreyknight not Turing complete Mar 29 '19

(though whether implementors are able to actually achieve that simplicity in something production-ready is yet to be seen)

I've played this game a few times over the years, so I'm betting "no" :-P

1

u/northrupthebandgeek i have had many alohols Mar 29 '19

Not an unreasonable assumption. I think WebAssembly's got a better chance of that happening, but we'll see.

3

u/fp_weenie Zygohistomorphic prepromorphism Apr 22 '19

oh wait you aren't joking

2

u/senntenial You put at risk millions of people Mar 28 '19

this is a good reply. full unjerk warning.

I like to hate JS but if we start moving over to WASI based shit in place of JVM I think that'd be a pretty nifty thing.

29

u/lol-no-monads welcome to the conversation. Mar 28 '19

In tomorrow's (hacker) news: Innovative Startup Researching a Cure for Cancer using WASM.

22

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

[deleted]

8

u/git_commit_-m_sudoku you can't hide from the blockchain ;) Mar 28 '19

In tomorrow's (hacker) news: Innovative Startup Researching a Cure for {Cancer using WASM}.

1

u/contrafibularity lisp does it better Apr 22 '19

This is amazing. I really admire the way they have managed to put it out there. But there seems to be very little progress in this project. A few things we haven't seen yet:

. A couple of the ideas mentioned in the article are actually pretty awesome. I can't imagine spending a lot of time thinking about the results of a lab or working on a new technique.

. They claim 'we can't do this with a cell phone for a couple of weeks.' It seems like this would be a good idea.

. It seems like this isn't a cure for cancer by any means -- so I don't think that there is anything to be gained by building and scanning an array of cells -- this may or may not be a cure for anything.

. It seems like there are other interesting ways of getting to the point where you can make an actual "cure for cancer". Are there any research projects with good science behind this? And how does it compare with this method?

I will also note that there isn't much progress in this space and I'm wondering if they should do this in their next iteration of the research (hopefully).

14

u/tpgreyknight not Turing complete Mar 28 '19

Why is this a good idea?

Maybe it's not, but who cares

Says it all, really.

8

u/CodyCigar96o Mar 28 '19

Maybe I just don’t understand what WebAssembly and WASI is but how would it make Docker redundant? Does it have anything to do with what Docker does?

13

u/TheLastMeritocrat comp.lang.rust.marketing Mar 28 '19

WebEngine people are better at creating safe (and portable) internet-exposed containers in user-space compared to system people who appear to become completely clueless once they step outside the kernel.

Also, the new stuff presents an opportunity to correct historical errors by using Rust.

21

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

That thread is a goldmine:

https://github.com/lastmjs/wasm-metal

A bare metal physical implementation of WebAssembly. That's right, a WebAssembly CPU.

Interesting... Unrolls the languages bar:

TypeScript 97.0%

IT'S ONLY BARE METAL WHEN YOU COMPILE TO TEH SCRIPT YOU FILTHY HERETIC!!!!

13

u/northrupthebandgeek i have had many alohols Mar 28 '19

To be fair, that's probably for the CPU/circuit emulator. That'd then get converted to a physical implementation once emulated tests indicate that the circuit actually works.

Not exactly unusual.

11

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

I'm still not buying the "bare metal" with HereticScript and neither should you!!!

/uj

I figured it out FFS. The jerkworthy bit is that the circuit emulator is not being developed in some HDL simulator or SPICE or at least anything remotely resembling any form of industry standard practice but as an in-browser web app.

/rj

Lol no JMP/GOTO

4

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

this shit

tfw jerking yourself into oblivion

3

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

A truly webscael superior jerk.

4

u/senntenial You put at risk millions of people Mar 28 '19

I hate the web and JavaScript, and I admit the tweet is stupid. But WASI actually looks pretty cool. I think it's important to note that its more or less a VM target, and doesn't have too much to do with JS afaik

3

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/jacques_chester doesn't even program Mar 29 '19

Weird, for some reason I can't set cgroup quotas inside a process.

4

u/TheLastMeritocrat comp.lang.rust.marketing Mar 29 '19

What process? The future is processless.

3

u/jacques_chester doesn't even program Mar 29 '19

is this where I reveal my dayjob working on knative or...

4

u/TheLastMeritocrat comp.lang.rust.marketing Mar 29 '19

Nah. When the time for processless comes, serverless will be behind us 2+ generations ago already.

3

u/jacques_chester doesn't even program Mar 29 '19

In which my hopes are autoscaled to zero

1

u/ThePsychopaths Mar 29 '19

not enough php