Book Image

Learn WebAssembly

By : Mike Rourke
Book Image

Learn WebAssembly

By: Mike Rourke

Overview of this book

WebAssembly is a brand-new technology that represents a paradigm shift in web development. This book teaches programmers to leverage this technology to write high-performance applications that run in the browser. This book introduces you to powerful WebAssembly concepts to help you write lean and powerful web applications with native performance. You start with the evolution of web programming, the state of things today, and what can be done with the advent and release of WebAssembly. We take a look at the journey from JavaScript to asm.js to WebAssembly. We then move on to analyze the anatomy of a WebAssembly module and the relationship between binary and text formats, along with the corresponding JavaScript API. Further on, you'll implement all the techniques you've learned to build a high-performance application using C and WebAssembly, and then port an existing game written in C++ to WebAssembly using Emscripten. By the end of this book, you will be well-equipped to create high-performance applications and games for the web using WebAssembly.

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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Dedication
PacktPub.com
PacktPub.com
Contributors
Contributors
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
What is WebAssembly?
What is WebAssembly?
The road to WebAssembly
What exactly is WebAssembly and where can I use it?
What languages are supported?
What are the limitations?
How does it relate to Emscripten?
Summary
Questions
Further reading
2
Elements of WebAssembly - Wat, Wasm, and the JavaScript API
Elements of WebAssembly - Wat, Wasm, and the JavaScript API
Common structure and abstract syntax
Wat
Binary format and the module file (Wasm)
The JavaScript and Web APIs
Connecting the dots with WasmFiddle
Summary
Questions
Further reading
3
Setting Up a Development Environment
Setting Up a Development Environment
Installing the development tooling
Configuring VS Code
Setting up for the web
Other tools
Summary
Questions
Further reading
4
Installing the Required Dependencies
Installing the Required Dependencies
The development workflow
Emscripten and the EMSDK
Installing the prerequisites
Installing and configuring the EMSDK
Testing the compiler
Summary
Questions
Further reading
5
Creating and Loading a WebAssembly Module
Creating and Loading a WebAssembly Module
Compiling C with Emscripten glue code
Loading the Emscripten module
Compiling C without the glue code
Fetching and instantiating a Wasm file
Summary
Questions
Further reading
6
Interacting with JavaScript and Debugging
Interacting with JavaScript and Debugging
The Emscripten module versus the WebAssembly object
Calling compiled C/C++ functions from JavaScript
Calling JavaScript functions from C/C++
Advanced Emscripten features
Debugging in the browser
Summary
Questions
Further reading
7
Creating an Application from Scratch
Creating an Application from Scratch
Cook the Books – making WebAssembly accountable
Setting up the project
Building the C portion
Building the JavaScript portion
Running the application
Summary
Questions
Further reading
8
Porting a Game with Emscripten
Porting a Game with Emscripten
Overview of the game
The code base in depth
Porting to Emscripten
Building and running the game
Summary
Questions
Further reading
9
Integrating with Node.js
Integrating with Node.js
Why Node.js?
Server-side WebAssembly with Express
Client-side WebAssembly with Webpack
Testing WebAssembly modules with Jest
Summary
Questions
Further reading
10
Advanced Tools and Upcoming Features
Advanced Tools and Upcoming Features
WABT and Binaryen
Compiling with LLVM
Online tooling
Parallel Wasm with Web Workers
Upcoming features
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
Index
Index

Summary

In this chapter, we discussed the history of WebAssembly with regard to the technologies that led to its creation. A detailed overview of the definition of WebAssembly was provided to allow for a greater understanding of the underlying technologies involved.

The Core Specification, JavaScript API, and Web API were presented as important elements of WebAssembly and demonstrate how the technology will evolve. We also reviewed potentials use cases, currently supported languages, and tools that enable the use of non-supported languages.

The limitations of WebAssembly are the absence of GC, the inability to communicate directly with the DOM, and the lack of support for older browsers. These were discussed to convey the newness of the technology and shed light on some of its shortcomings. Finally, we discussed Emscripten's role in the development process and where it fits into the WebAssembly development workflow.

In Chapter 2, Elements of WebAssembly - Wat, Wasm, and the JavaScript API, we'll be diving deeper into the elements that make up WebAssembly: the WebAssembly text format (Wat), binary format (Wasm), JavaScript, and Web APIs.

 

 

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