Building a UDF Engine With Wasm

DZONE.COM

User-defined functions (UDFs) are common feature of most SQL databases, if the task you want to undertake is a challenge with SQL, you can write functions using mainstream programming languages. These are then deployed to the database, which hosts and executes them.

WebAssembly is an ideal runtime for UDFs, it has a strong security model through sandboxing, and supports a wide range of programming languages. This post explores creating Wasm powered UDFs for the open source TiDB database.

MS Flight Sim - Wasm plugin system

FLIGTSIMULATOR.COM

Talking of WebAssembly as a plugin host, I spotted that Microsoft’s Flight Simulator has a WebAssembly-based plugin system. Neat!

PLOP

CALTROP.DEV

PLOP (I love the name) is a falling sand game, a particle simulation where you have a whole host of different materials at your disposal. I could waste hours playing with this!

UNDERRUN

The game is written in C, compiled to WebAssembly, with the sourcode available on GitHub.

Rust Is The Future of JavaScript Infrastructure

LEEROB.IO

Rust is a fast, reliable, memory-efficient and growing in popularity. This post argues, and I tend to agree, that Rust is a great choice for building JavaScript infrastructure and tooling. WHo wouldn’t want faster, more efficient tooling? We’re already seeing a number of Rust-powered tools appearing and gaining traction.

Rust, together with WebAssembly, is an even more potent combination. The portability of the WebAssembly runtime means that you don’t have to build tools for specific architectures. Furthermore, the security model of WebAssembly should help address the growing problems of software supply chain attacks.

AssemblyScript vs. TypeScript: the Differences Developers Need to Know

SUBORBITAL.DEV

AssemblyScript doesn’t aim to fully replicate TypeScript, it is instead a language that is heavily inspired by TypeScript with some key differences based on the capabilities of WebAssembly. However, for JavaScript or TypeScript developers it is a great starting point for WebAssembly development.

Emscripten running client-side in the browser powered by WebAssembly.

REDDIT.COM

WebAssembly is a great way to bring C / C++ applications to the web. It just so happens that Emscripten, the C++ to WebAssembly compiler, is a command line application written in C++, so why not bring that to the web too? Emception uses Emscripten to bring Emscripten itself to the web. 🤯

Kotlin & WebAssembly: A First Look

YOUTUBE.COM

Kotlin is a new language, developed by JetBrains, which has growing support, especially among the Java community. They have recently announced WebAssembly support. This video gives a first look.