alt Hacker NewsWell, arguably the worst thing about WASM is the naming.
It's neither directly related to the web, nor is it an assembly syntax.
It's just another virtual ISA. "Direct DOM access for WASM" makes about as much sense as "direct C++ stdlib access for the x86 instruction set" - none ;)
Replies
k9294 • yesterday at 8:17 PM
Oh wow, that really is terrible naming... I always thought WASM was a specification for compiling code into something that runs natively in web browsers—like a web-specific compilation target.. Today I learned.
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titzer • yesterday at 8:10 PM
In German, often things are named for where they came from, like Berliner or Frankfurter. WebAssembly came from the web, so makes sense :)
If you want to compare the situation to x86, direct DOM access for WebAssembly is more akin to the BIOS than C++ stdlib access. If it can't interact with the outside world, it's just a very special toy that you can only use to play a game that isn't any fun, and a good candidate for those 'What's the next COBOL?' discussions that come up every now and then.