Best of WebAssembly — October 2024

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   Article

   P99 Conf·2y

   14 Books by P99 CONF Speakers: Latency, Wasm, Databases & More

   P99 CONF features over 60 speakers sharing insights on performance topics like distributed databases, Rust, C++, Go, Wasm, and more. The post highlights 14 books authored by the speakers, providing a rich resource for attendees. Registrants get a 30-day access to O’Reilly’s library and discounts from Manning publications. The highlighted books cover diverse topics such as data-intensive applications, technical writing, latency reduction, distributed systems, and eBPF.

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   Article

   Zed·1y

   Life of a Zed Extension: Rust, WIT, Wasm

   Extensions in Zed, added earlier this year, enable additional languages, themes, snippets, and commands. These extensions are written in Rust, compiled into WebAssembly (Wasm) modules using the WebAssembly Component Model, and leverage Tree-sitter for parsing within Wasm. Extensions are managed via a repository and compiled using a CLI tool. Upon installation, extensions are downloaded as pre-compiled Wasm archives and integrated into Zed through a Wasm runtime. The effort showcases a harmonious integration of Rust and Wasm technologies, creating a powerful extension ecosystem.

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   Article

   DEV·2y

   Run a Virtual Machine in Your Browser

   Discover how to run a complete virtual machine in your browser using WebAssembly. This guide covers setting up a web application with React.js, configuring the V86 emulator, and booting up FreeDOS or Alpine Linux within your browser. Detailed steps include setting up your web app, installing necessary components, and customizing the emulator for a retro look.

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   Article

   Fermyon·2y

   The Version Manager Plugin

   The Spin version manager (verman) plugin has been announced to simplify switching between different versions of Spin, an open-source framework for building WebAssembly applications. The plugin can be installed and updated independently of Spin, allowing for easy version management. Key commands include downloading, setting, updating, listing, and removing Spin versions.

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   Article

   Hacker News·2y

   My First Game with Carimbo, My Homemade Engine

   The author shares their experience of creating a game engine named Carimbo and developing a game for their son using C++17 for the engine and Lua for scripting. They detail aspects such as resource management, the postal service for message passing inspired by Erlang, and the game loop mechanics, highlighting homemade coding as a labor of love similar to their father's handmade toys.

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   Article

   Hacker News·1y

   gosub-io/gosub-engine: A web browser in the making. More info at https://gosub.io

   The Gosub browser engine project aims to create a standalone library for parsing and rendering HTML5 and CSS3 documents. Although still in its early stages, the project supports parsing HTML5 and CSS3 into document trees and offers initial rendering capabilities. The project uses Rust and can be built into WebAssembly. Contributors are welcome to join the development effort, primarily focused on research and proof-of-concepts at this stage.

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   Article

   Bytes by ui.dev·2y

   WebContainers are having a moment

   StackBlitz has launched bolt.new, an AI-powered development sandbox utilizing WebContainers, allowing developers to create, run, edit, and deploy full-stack web applications directly from the browser. This new tool integrates AI at multiple levels and offers seamless npm package installation, third-party API interaction, and deployment capabilities via Netlify. The post also highlights Datadog's guide to effective log management and several other tech updates.

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   Article

   Fermyon·1y

   Lightweight Kubernetes and Wasm is a Perfect Combo

   Recent advancements have introduced lightweight Kubernetes distributions like Rancher Labs k3s and Canonical's Microk8s. Combining these with WebAssembly-based SpinKube offers high efficiency, especially for lower-powered hardware or virtual machines. SpinKube's serverless design allows apps to start in half a millisecond, making it suitable for high-density deployments, cost-saving on infrequent services, and efficient edge computing.

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   Article

   Lobsters·1y

   LocalStorage vs. IndexedDB vs. Cookies vs. OPFS vs. WASM-SQLite

   Web applications require efficient methods of storing data within a user's browser. Traditional methods like Cookies and LocalStorage are compared with newer technologies such as IndexedDB, OPFS (Origin Private File System), and WASM-SQLite. Each method has its own use cases, advantages, and performance characteristics. The comparison includes factors like the ability to store complex JSON documents, multi-tab support, indexing capabilities, and performance in initialization, read/write latencies, and bulk operations.

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