[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #444: Assembly language for the web

[OPLIN Support]

    Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.
<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/>  [image: OPLIN 4Cast]

OPLIN 4cast #444: Assembly language for the web
July 1st, 2015

[image: computer code]Warning: This *4cast* posting is going to get
technical. But hang with us a minute, with a little bit of introductory
information, we can probably get through this. In recent years, there has
been a tendency for programmers to write "native apps" for a particular
piece of hardware, especially a particular smartphone operating system, so
they could make the device do complex things online that would not happen
smoothly in a web browser built to run on any operating system. So the
announcement last week that the major web browsers have come together to
develop a new web language that can allow browsers to perform as well as
native apps was big news for programmers, and could very well lead to a
simpler, more standardized web experience for the rest of us, too.

   - What Mozilla's WebAssembly means: More powerful web apps
   <http://readwrite.com/2015/06/22/webassembly-wasm-mozilla-firefox-standard-javascript>
   (ReadWrite | Adriana Lee) "Much of today's Web was made with JavaScript,
   the Web development language created in 1995 by Brendan Eich, formerly of
   Netscape and Mozilla. Without it, static webpages would stretch out
   endlessly before our bored eyeballs. Instead, we now have dynamic features,
   from simple games and animations, to bookmark applets and full-blown Web
   apps. JavaScript is not the only game in town, but it has been the most
   popular. Now WebAssembly aims to improve upon it, both in power and ease."
   - Meet WebAssembly: Microsoft, Google, and Firefox's alternative to
   JavaScript
   <http://www.networkworld.com/article/2938585/microsoft-subnet/meet-webassembly-microsoft-google-and-firefoxs-alternative-to-javascript.html>
   (NetworkWorld | Andy Patrizio) "The problem is that JavaScript is a text
   language that has to be parsed and executed by interpretation, which often
   makes the apps slow as they get complex. The idea behind WebAssembly is to
   provide developers with a single language target for web apps that will
   hopefully become a web standard. With Google, Microsoft, Firefox, and the
   team behind the WebKit browser (which is used in Apple's Safari), there's a
   good chance of that happening."
   - WebAssembly - New standard for powerful and faster web apps
   <http://thehackernews.com/2015/06/webassembly-fastest-browser.html> (The
   Hacker News | Swati Khandelwal) "WebAssembly will introduce a new file
   format that will allow developers to compile their code to a binary
   notation, which will then be executed inside each browser's (e.g. Chrome,
   Firefox, IE/Edge, Safari) JavaScript engine. If introduced as a standard
   implemented in all web browsers, *WebAssembly could surely bring
   app-like performance to Web content as well as applications*.
   Preliminary tests already show that the binary representation is 23 times
   faster to parse than similar JavaScript applications optimized through
   Mozilla's widely supported asm.js for browsers...."
   - The secret alliance that could give the Web a massive speed boost
   <http://www.cnet.com/news/the-secret-alliance-that-could-give-the-web-a-massive-speed-boost/>
   (CNET | Stephen Shankland) "Today, it's not unusual to run processor-taxing
   programs as native apps on your tablet, phone or PC - for example, Adobe's
   photo-editing software Lightroom. But running a browser-based alternative,
   such as Pics.io, has its advantages. A programmer, for instance, can write
   one Web-based app and have it run on any operating system, since you need
   only the browser. That programmer liberation could help loosen the grip
   that Apple and Google have on the technology industry today with their iOS
   and Android operating systems, where native apps rule."

 *Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - The evolution of web development for mobile devices.
   <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=8de7366c-e291-442b-a2d6-6f871eb7411f%40sessionmgr4002&vid=0&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=buh&AN=87497780>
   (*Communications of the ACM*, April 2013, p.42-48 | Nicholas C. Zakas)
   - Best practices on the move: Building web apps for mobile devices.
   <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=3ae444be-6710-4e33-8bbc-ff4dd6e7d120%40sessionmgr4004&vid=0&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=cph&AN=89594090>
   (*Communications of the ACM*, August 2013, p.45-51 | Alex Nicolaou)
   - What about JavaScript?
   <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=fe913cf5-3c1d-4af1-88cb-70467c9ad356%40sessionmgr4004&vid=0&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=buh&AN=103228737>
   (*Business Week*, 6/15/2015, p.78-80 | Paul Ford)

    ------------------------------
The *OPLIN 4cast* is a weekly compilation of recent headlines, topics, and
trends that could impact public libraries. You can subscribe to it in a
variety of ways, such as:

   - *RSS feed.* You can receive the OPLIN 4cast via RSS feed by
   subscribing to the following URL:
   http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?feed=rss2.
   - *Live Bookmark.* If you're using the Firefox web browser, you can go
   to the 4cast website (http://www.oplin.org/4cast/) and click on the
   orange "radio wave" icon on the right side of the address bar. In Internet
   Explorer 7, click on the same icon to view or subscribe to the 4cast RSS
   feed.
   - *E-mail.* You can have the OPLIN 4cast delivered via e-mail (a'la
   OPLINlist and OPLINtech) by subscribing to the 4cast mailing list at
   http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/OPLIN4cast.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.oplin.org/pipermail/oplin4cast/attachments/20150701/3f6bd93e/attachment.html>