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Comment by Fej | Hacker News Reader

On one hand, I want to bash WebAssembly because it takes away our ability to see what we're running on our own PCs. On the other, it helps us slowly get away from the mess that is modern JavaScript.

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With Javascript build tools and minimisers, it's already usually impossible to understand what you're running.

I think "this javascript mess" is largely bourne out of an attempt to mitigate content blocking. asm.js is pretty fast and I am not sure how much improvement wasm will provide, but if given access to more of the low-level environment I am concerned advertisers will implement maliscious code and pop-ups in wasm that is non-trivially blocked.

It's the same VM as JS, so why would it be any less secure?

I am not sure exactly how it can be implemented, but I imagine that compiling and serving a binary file could allow for some maliscious things. My biggest worry is that many content blockers override js and search scripts for keywords and functionality which they muitigate. I could see a binary file executing code which provides pop-ups, advertisements or drm which would be harder to eliminate than it is now.

I am not 100% sure if this is true, but it seems possible.

Serving a binary file is in principle no different than serving a string file. What can be done with WebAssembly today can most likely also be done with asm.js.

Totally agree. I really think it's important for the community that there be a easy, free, and open way to view the source code (or some readable not obfuscated version) of any site.

Yes, definitely use source maps in all of your JS.

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