From JVM and Flash to WASM

When I use WASM (WebAssembly), memories come back of teaching assembly language and writing (Macromedia/Adobe) Flash code. And, I remember the days when we used Java integration within a Web browser — using the JWM (Java Virtual Machine). Also, I remember developing with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) within .NET 3.0, but that just felt like a step too far in linking desktops to Web pages, and the Web wasn’t ready for such a radical step forward.

And, so, Java and Flash have been dumped from their integration in browsers because of security issues, but now there’s a new integration: WASM. This time, hopefully, we will get the integration right and allow machine-level code to run on a client’s machine without any security issues.

Overall, I used to love using (Macromedia/Adobe) Flash, and I created a whole lot of Web pages with it, including one which integrated Cisco routers, switches and wireless access points. But Flash moved to ActionScript 2.0, and it meant I would have to change all my code. So, I rewrote the whole lot in C#/.NET, and then onto C#/ASP.NET. To me, though, there has never been a faster and slicker integration until now … WebAssembly (WASM). And while Flash had many security issues — which was possibly one of the reasons it was eventually dumped — WASM has been designed to have excellent levels of security, even though it runs on the client’s…