February 28, 2017
WebAssembly MVP design finished
Browser vendors reached WebAssemblyA compact binary instruction format for running code in browsers at near-native speed — extends the web beyond JavaScript. MVP design consensus on February 28, 2017 — portable binary code for browsers; FirefoxMozilla's open-source browser — championed web standards and challenged Internet Explorer's dominance. 52 began shipping Wasm in early March 2017.
What it was for
WebAssemblyA compact binary instruction format for running code in browsers at near-native speed — extends the web beyond JavaScript. (Wasm) runs C, C++, RustA systems language emphasizing memory safety without garbage collection — fast adoption in infrastructure., and other languages in the browser at near-native speed — games, video editors, and Figma-class apps in the tab. Also runs on servers (Wasmtime, Wasmer) and as a portable sandbox. Compiles from LLVMLow Level Virtual Machine — a compiler infrastructure reused by Clang, Rust, Swift, and many language toolchains. and ships as a compact `.wasm` binary.
Why it's here
WebAssemblyA compact binary instruction format for running code in browsers at near-native speed — extends the web beyond JavaScript. became the fourth web platform language alongside HTMLHyperText Markup Language — the standard markup for structuring web pages., CSSCascading Style Sheets — the language for layout, color, and typography on web pages., and JavaScript.
Why it mattered
It let existing native codebases run in browsers without rewriting everything in JS.
What it solved
JavaScript could not match native performance for heavy compute; asm.js proved the concept but needed a standard binary format.
Media
- ImageWebAssembly
Carlos Baraza, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- JavaScript name announced by Netscape and SunDecember 4, 1995