The past, present, and future of the Web

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# The past, present, and future of the Web

## By @steveklabnik

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# Agenda

## 1. A short history of the Web
## 2. What is "the web platform"?
## 3. Where are we going? (wasm)

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![quote](img/quote.jpg)

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# A short history of the Web

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### In the beginning

## There was HTML

### And it was good

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## August 6, 1991, the first web site goes live

![First website](img/firstwebsite.png)

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![img tag](img/newtag.png)

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## CSS was first proposed by Håkon Wium Lie on October 10, 1994.

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## JavaScript was created in in May 1995 by Brendan Eich.

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## The core technologies of the web were set 23 years ago.

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### The first version of mod_perl was written by Gisle Aas and released on March 25, 1996.

### CGI, the "Common Gateway Interface", proposed in 1993, standardized in 2004.

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## More stuff *has* happened, but mostly *refinement*, rather than *revolution*.

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## There is a precursor, though: the rediscovery of JavaScript.

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# What is "the web platform"?

## It should be "the web *application* platform."

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# Platforms consist of:

## 1. An ISA (instruction set architecture)
## 2. A runtime environment and its API
## 3. Tooling to help you build stuff

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# Case study: Java

## 1. ISA: Java Bytecode
## 2. Runtime: JVM
## 3. Tooling: javac

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# Case study: UNIX on x86

## 1. ISA: x86
## 2. Runtime: UNIX (wait what?)
## 3. Tooling: shell, C, gcc

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### The web platform is unusual in that it was developed
## out of order
### and it historically has had
## missing pieces

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## Other platforms were local, then networked.

## The web platform is networked, and only now becoming local.

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# The browser was a *viewport* into an *application on the server*.

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# This limits the kind of applications that we can build on the web platform.

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# Where are we going?

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## Further developing the web platform's capabilities requires filling in the missing pieces.

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# Case study: Web Platform

## 1. ISA: ???
## 2. Runtime: JavaScript + Platform APIs
## 3. Tooling: So so so so so many

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# JavaScript as ISA?

## Sort of, but not *really*.

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# JavaScript was not designed for this task.

## "Compile to JS" works, but has significant drawbacks.

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### Overhead: Download, Parse, Compile, Execute
### No integers?
### Too complex (885 pages)

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# Enter WebAssembly

## 1. ISA: **WebAssembly**
## 2. Runtime: JavaScript + Platform APIs
## 3. Tooling: So so so so so many

### Spec: 165 pages

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## Previously, the web could only handle *high level* tasks.

## With wasm, the web platform can handle *low level* tasks.

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## The Web Platform is closing in on application spaces previously only possible on other platforms.

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## Aside: isn't this Java Applets? Flash? NaCL?

# NO

## * One VM
## * Not tied to one language
## * Proper platform integration

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## It's not just about wasm, it's also about the platform expanding:

## * WebGL
## * WebAudio
## * WebUSB (!)

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## Soon, "web application" does not need to be synonymous with "networked application" or "web page" or anything else we associate with the web platform today.

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# Let's go back to an earlier slide:

#![rediscovery of javascript](img/rediscovery.png)

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## SPAs shifted *some* of the application to the client.

## This work enables *all* of the application to be on the client.

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# Why is this useful?

## Universal, cross-platform applications.

## "no install neccesary"

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# What *is* WebAssembly, anyway?

## Extremely misunderstood 🙁

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# Factorial

## Wasm is a compact, binary format:

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## It also has a text format, so you can "view source" easily.

![textual representation](img/text.png)

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## It's designed to be small, efficient, and integrate with existing JS VMs.

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## It's *not* designed to replace JavaScript

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## It has limitations, such as not being able to access the DOM

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## It has no GC integration

### This means, C, C++, and Rust

#### JavaScript does *not* compile to wasm

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## You can do cool things!

![Rust in the browser](img/rustinthebrowser.png)

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## You can do cool things!

![buddhabrot](img/buddha.png)

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## You can do cool things!

### *Nebulet* is an operating system where wasm is the native program format

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## Traditional web applications will always be a thing.

### This is about *expansion*, not *replacement*.

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# The Birth & Death of JavaScript

## [A talk by Gary Bernhardt from PyCon 2014](https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death-of-javascript)

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## Bootstrapping

## * Cross compile your shell to the browser, via wasm
## * Cross compile your compiler to the browser, via wasm
## * Compile your shell in the browser via the compiler you just cross-compiled

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### Soon, "web application" does not need to be synonymous with "networked application" or "web page" or anything else we associate with the web platform today.

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# Thanks!

## @steveklabnik