WebAssembly (often abbreviated as wasm) is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine. It is a standard that defines a binary format and a corresponding assembly-like text format for executables used by web pages. It is not designed to replace JavaScript but to work effectively alongside it, allowing web developers to take advantage of both languages’ strong points.
WebAssembly is designed to be a low-level virtual machine that runs code at nearly the speed of native machine code. The main use case for WebAssembly is to enable high-performance applications on web pages, but it does not make assumptions about the runtime environment, and thus can also be used in other environments.
Below are the steps to use WebAssembly with JavaScript :
1. WebAssembly Module Compilation and Instantiation:
Firstly, fetch the WebAssembly binary code, then compile that wasm binary code into a WebAssembly module, and then instantiate this WebAssembly module into an instance:
```
let wasmModule;
fetch(‘example.wasm’)
.then(response => response.arrayBuffer())
.then(bytes => WebAssembly.compile(bytes))
.then(module => {
wasmModule = module;
return WebAssembly.instantiate(module);
})
.then(instance => {
// Use your instance here
console.log(instance);
});
```
1. Using the WebAssembly Functions:
Once you have the WebAssembly instance, you can call its functions in the following way:
```
instance.exports._yourWasmFunctionName();
```
1. Passing Parameters to the WebAssembly Functions:
WebAssembly functions only accept numbers as parameters. Here is an example demonstrating this:
```
instance.exports._yourWasmFunctionName(10,20); // Passing numbers to your WebAssembly function
```
1. Getting a Return Value from the WebAssembly Functions:
WebAssembly functions only return a single number. Here is an example demonstrating this:
```
let result = instance.exports._yourWasmFunctionName();
```
WebAssembly is a promising technology and can be of great use when working with computationally intensive tasks, real-time rendering, and more. It allows us to take web applications to a whole new level of performance and reliability.
