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MangoToupeyesterday at 6:57 PM1 replyview on HN

Why WASM and not, like, java or something?


Replies

boricjyesterday at 7:14 PM

As in, Java ME?

Unless I'm mistaken, it's been on life support for the past 15 years. It's probably more heavyweight and firmware size/Flash usage is a concern. I don't think performance would be on par with WASM and there are use-cases where that really matters (ray tracing rendering for example). I'm also not sure there are many maintained, open-source implementations for it out there. I've also heard stories that it was quite a mess in practice because it was plagued by bugs and quirks specific to phone models, despite the fact that it was supposed to be a standard.

I'd gladly be proven wrong, but I don't think Java ME has a bright future. Unless you were thinking of something else?

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