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What's stopping WebAssembly from effectively replacing JavaScript? (programming.dev)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/programming@programming.dev
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I've been wondering about this for a while and haven't really found a great answer for it. From what I understand, WASM is:

  • Faster than JavaScript

  • Has a smaller file size

  • Can be compiled to from pretty much any programming language

  • Can be used outside of the browser easier thanks to WASI

So why aren't most websites starting to try replacing (most) JS with WASM now that it's supported by every major browser? The most compelling argument I heard is that WASM can't manipulate the DOM and a lot of people don't want to deal with gluing JS code to it, but aside from that, is there something I'm missing?

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[–] 4 points 3 years ago

Javascript is just really great. WASM is also great and really opens up some cool possibilities, but there is something inexplicably simple and approachable about Javascript. I think it will be very hard to topple it from its throne, even if WASM overcame it's DOM issues.

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