WebAssembly is a big step forward in the capabilities of the browser as a code execution environment. Supported by all major browsers and backward compatible, it's a binary compilation format designed to run in the browser at near native speeds. It opens up the range of languages you can use to write front-end functionality, with early focus on C, C++ and Rust, and it's also an LLVM compilation target. When run in the sandbox, it can interact with JavaScript and shares the same permissions and security model. When used with Firefox's new streaming compiler, it also results in faster page initialization. Although it's still early days, this W3C standard is definitely one to start exploring.

WebAssembly is a big step forward in the capabilities of the browser as a code execution environment. Supported by all major browsers and backward compatible, it's a binary compilation format designed to run in the browser at near native speeds. It opens up the range of languages you can use to write front-end functionality, with early focus on C, C++ and Rust, and it's also an LLVM compilation target. When run in the sandbox, it can interact with JavaScript and shares the same permissions and security model. When used with Firefox’s new streaming compiler, it also results in faster page initialization. Although it's still early days, this W3C standard is definitely one to start exploring.