No teasers this week, but I have a question for yo...

# webassembly

[bashor]

No teasers this week, but I have a question for you:
https://mobile.twitter.com/bashorov/status/1628516357686849538

[Daniele B]

I believe Kotlin is the language which is better placed to make WebAssembly a success, because it’s already a leader in multiplatform and it can compile existing _Android_/_iOS_ projects to Web via Wasm with little effort. Also, unlike other GC languages such as Golang, it already has a popular UI framework (Compose) to build advanced web apps.

[Daniele B]

Kotlin/Wasm is the technology that Kotlin was missing in order to become a leader in the Web. Kotlin/JS is an inefficient transpiling to an already inefficient language, and it would have never been a desirable technology to build solid web projects.

[Pablichjenkov]

I go with 1, the browser is where I see a big market. In this field, to be successful, it has to process the byte code the fastest possible and place the system calls the fastest possible. That too, shipping with gc support for managed languages. Big enterprise apps in system languages tend to be a pain to maintain. So support for managed languages is a must for success.

[darkmoon_uk]

I see Kotlin/WASM as a great enabler to treating the web-browser (the planet's most ubiquitous platform) as 'yet another rich client'; in the same way that I'm used to developing for Mobile or Desktop platforms, with mature, stable, type-safe tooling. I am following, with keen interest every day, the leading edge of WASM+Compose as the emerging 'power-user's Flutter' where much smaller teams than before will be empowered to deliver cross-platform Applications.

[michaelv]

yes I too abandoned Flutter for KMP. With KMP we should be able to do everything Flutter does with less compromise.

[Emre]

@Daniele B Is Kotlin/JS unusably bad for production?

[Daniele B]

I wouldn't say it's unusable, but Kotlin/Wasm it's a much better choice

[darkmoon_uk]

*...will be once GC is fully enabled in mainstream browsers.

[darkmoon_uk]

One way to look at JS, is it provides a representative Dev path for WASM, so you can build products with the expectation of WASM support improving, in time for production in around a year. That's a risk that won't be for everyone, but appetites vary 😊

[Daniele B]

Yes, true 👍 You can build today a Compose app for Kotlin/JS Canvas and with no effort you can compile it for Kotlin/Wasm in the future.
The Wasm GC should be fully enabled on major browsers within an year.

[Emre]

Where is the GC debate taking place, https://github.com/WebAssembly/gc ?

[bashor]

Yes, also, there is a bi-weekly meetings. You can find notes here https://github.com/WebAssembly/meetings/tree/main/gc