Some weeks I struggle to fill this newsletter, but not this week. So much WebAssembly news, and so many great articles! - Colin Eberhardt
WinForms running on WebAssembly
GITHUB.COM
This particular project took twitter by storm … the Mono framework started around 15 years ago as an open source implementation of various Microsoft technologies (the CLR, C#, WinForms etc …). This project has managed to take the Mono WinForms implementation and get it running in the browser with WebAssembly. Yes, Microsoft WinForms running in your browser!
Before you get too excited (or disgusted), this isn’t a practical solution right now. It currently runs in interpreted mode, meaning that it is really quite slow. Moving to ahead of time compilation (AOT) would make it a lot faster.
Scala Native on WebAssembly Demo
GITHUB.COM
Scala typically runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), however, the Scala Native project provides ahead-of-time compilation allowing Scala to run close ‘to the metal’. This project demonstrates how Scala Native can target WebAssembly.
Runner Bee - Ruby on the web
RUNRB.IO
And another languages arrives in the land of WebAssembly! This project allows you to write and execute Ruby directly within the browser. Powered by Emscripten, this has the potential to make it much easier for people to learn the Ruby language.
Signing WebAssembly Modules with Rust
MEDIUM.COM
The WebAssembly Virtual Machine and language has been designed with a real focus on security. However, once you hook your WebAssembly module up to its environment (the browser, node or your blockchain network), you can only really guarantee security if you know that your WebAssembly module has not been tampered with or replaced. This post looks at potential options for signing wasm modules.
Rust + Yew = WebAssembly
NULAB-INC.COM
Yew is a framework for building web apps using Rust and WebAssembly. This blog post demonstrates the creation of a neat little kanban application using this framework. The post is in Japanese, but translates very well via Google Translate if you need it.
And Finally …
A long an insightful twitter thread from Gary Bernhardt on all the leaky abstractions that exist on the web. Quite relevant to authors of WebAssembly frameworks!