WebAssembly (Wasm) is a portable binary instruction format designed for the web, along with a corresponding textual format, aiming to enable code execution in web browsers with near-native performance. Wasm is designed to work seamlessly with JavaScript, allowing both to collaborate in building web pages and applications.
Wasm modules are packaged forms of WebAssembly code, featuring the following characteristics:
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Portability: Wasm modules can run in any environment supporting WebAssembly, including modern web browsers.
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Efficiency: Wasm modules execute with high efficiency as they run close to machine code, achieving performance near that of native applications.
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Security: Wasm runs within a sandboxed environment, ensuring its execution does not compromise the host environment's security.
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Interoperability: Although Wasm modules are not written in JavaScript, they are designed to interoperate with JavaScript, meaning you can call functions from Wasm modules within JavaScript applications and vice versa.
Wasm modules are written in low-level languages such as C, C++, and Rust, then compiled into .wasm binary files. These files can be downloaded and executed by web browsers or run in other environments supporting Wasm, such as certain server-side platforms or containers.
In summary, Wasm modules provide a way for developers to write high-performance code for the web using programming languages other than JavaScript.