Leading browser vendors, including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla decided to create a new web standard that will allow you to write code sites in C/C++ and other languages and compile them into the binary executable file of the site. The innovation will allow dozens of times to increase the speed of loading pages.
WebAssembly is a unified binary the compiler. Its task is to make the in-browser JavaScript engine to execute code compiled from different programming languages such as C/C++.
The binary format has several important advantages. First, it provides greater compression of JavaScript files that will download less data from the Internet. Secondly, the JavaScript engine in the browser decodes the binary code dozens of times faster, which will improve the loading speed of websites, especially on mobile devices. The prototype WebAssembly already code handles up to 23 times faster than code asm.js.
Previously developers had to work around the limitations to complelely code in JavaScript. Every major company has tried to solve the problem on its own. Microsoft, for example, created the TypeScript language, extends the functionality of JavaScript, Mozilla is a subset asm.js Google Native Client. The new format is intended to combine the advantages of these developments and to make the web could be compiled more languages.
High speed is not the only benefit of the new standard on a consistent compilation of JavaScript code. Binary code is easier compressed. Thus, the transition to the new format will reduce the network load and increase the speed of delivery of web files in your browser.
At the initial stage, the developers plan to release the library for broadcast WebAssemlby-code in JavaScript, so it can be run in any browser. Later will be released more tools (compilers, debuggers, etc.) and added support for new languages (Rust, Go, C#, etc.).
According to the Creator of JavaScript Brenden IKE (Brendan Eich) — which was briefly CEO of Mozilla after all the major browsers will support WebAssembly, between WebAssembly and JavaScript will be division. However, the authors of the standard, underline that the objective of the new standard is not to replace JavaScript, but to provide the ability to compile code for web sites written in more languages.
