From there, we abstracted things even further to running code in a browser. These days, the browser functions almost as an operating system, minimizing the developer’s dependency on the underlying OS. Chrome, for example, runs in Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS, executing code within its own controlled sandbox. It is a deeper abstraction than even the JVM or .NET runtime.
And this is why Wasm fascinates me. It has the potential to really answer the call of “Write once, run everywhere.” That was the great hope of Java, but it didn’t take long for that aphorism to become “Write once, debug everywhere.”
While Wasm doesn’t yet “run everywhere,” its use is steadily expanding beyond the browser. Broader adoption, particularly on the server side, seems inevitable. Right now, Wasm is most useful for doing computationally intense operations like gaming and encryption. Since the browser is the target for a large and ever-increasing portion of applications, it stands to reason that Wasm will become even more widely used.
