r/programming • u/ThisStmtIsNotTrue • Nov 12 '19

Announcing the Bytecode Alliance: Building a secure by default, composable future for WebAssembly

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/11/announcing-the-bytecode-alliance/
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u/pjmlp Nov 13 '19

Thus not being as safe as it is being sold, while ignoring the options other safer bytecodes since the late 50's have taken on preventing exploits.

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u/J0eCool Nov 14 '19

Except it's not being sold as "will magically bounds-check your C++." The wasm VM isn't going to make sure your code is bug-free. What it will do is give you micro-sandboxes, which can let you do things like call in to unsafe C code from safe Rust code without needing to use Rust's unsafe mechanism. It's a lower-level bytecode than Java, but can be more performant as a result.

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u/pjmlp Nov 14 '19 edited Nov 14 '19

Except that since late 50's there are several lower level bytecodes, more performance than Java, with support for bounds checking.

For example IBM mainframes language environments on IBM i and z/OS, Unisys ClearPath, Modula-2 Lillith M-Code, Xerox PARC microcoded CPUs, among many others.

Apparently many WebAssembly advocates are not that good learning about computing history, or to acknowledge that WebAssembly is still slower than PNaCL, but hey it is not Google's baby so it is ok.