SESSION + Live Q&A

WebAssembly (And the Death of JavaScript?)

JavaScript brought interactivity to the web more than 20 years ago, and despite numerous challengers, it is still the only language supported by browser. However, as those 20 years have passed we've moved from adding a little interactivity to largely static sites, to creating complex JavaScript-heavy single page applications. Throughout this journey, the way we use JavaScript itself has also changed. Gone are the days of writing simple code snippets that are run directly in the browser. Nowadays we transpile, minify, tree-shake and more, treating the JavaScript virtual machine as a compilation target.

The problem is, JavaScript isn't a very good compilation target, because it simply wasn't designed to be one.

This talk will look at what's wrong with the way we are using JavaScript today and why we need WebAssembly. It will delve into the internals, giving a quick tour of the WebAssembly instruction set, memory and security model, before moving on to the more practical aspects of using it with Rust, C++ and JavaScript. Finally we'll do some crystal-ball gazing and see what the future might hold for this rapidly evolving technology, and ask the question - “Is WebAssembly going to kill JavaScript?”

Speaker

Colin Eberhardt

CTO @Scott_Logic

I’m the CTO at Scott Logic, a UK-based software consultancy where we create complex application for our financial services clients. I’m an avid technology enthusiast, spending my evenings contributing to open source projects, writing blog posts and learning as much as I can. You can...

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Speaker

Colin Eberhardt
Colin Eberhardt

CTO @Scott_Logic

Location

Windsor, 5th flr.

Track

JavaScript and Beyond: The Future of the Frontend

Topics

JavaScriptWebAssemblyInterview Available

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