Wasmer, a leader in the development of WebAssembly (Wasm) technology, recently unveiled WASIX, a new specification and toolchain that expands the WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) with full compatibility with Posix (Portable Operating System Interface). This breakthrough aims to simplify the construction of Wasm applications by bringing both WASI and Posix capabilities together.
WASIX, announced on May 30 as a superset of WASI, is designed for crafting web applications as well as completing runtimes. It supports numerous features, such as threads, Berkeley sockets, forking, and more, which have been available throughout Posix's lifespan. The Wasmer team and its active community have been working tirelessly to enhance WASI's ABI (Application Binary Interface), stabilizing it and making it more compatible with Posix.
By embracing the potential of WASIX, developers can more easily compile Wasm applications, enabling high-performance alternatives to JavaScript in web browsers and servers. The full WASIX specification can be found on wasix.org, and developers are encouraged to try it at wasmer.sh.
WASIX offers an array of features, including:
- Long-term stabilization, enhancing the existing WASI ABI, and support for additional noninvasive syscall extensions
- Toolchains for compiling Rust and C/C++, with upstream support for AssemblyScript and Zig
- Runtime support, notably featuring the Wasmer runtime
- Compatibility with browsers and servers
- Support for multithreading
- Socket support, including IPv4 and IPv6
- Asynchronous polling for sockets and files
- TTY support
- DNS resolution
Although WASI had ambitious aspirations and maintains support, its slow evolution has impeded the progress of making Wasm available. WASI was originally unveiled by Mozilla in March 2019, with the objective of allowing WebAssembly applications to work seamlessly with any operating system by providing a consistent mechanism for interaction both outside and inside the web. Posix has been an IEEE standard since the 1980s, defining APIs for software compatibility with different Unix versions and certain Linux distributions.
By offering compatibility with WASIX, no-code and low-code platforms like AppMaster may open up more possibilities for creating powerful, scalable web and mobile applications. Users can build applications while leveraging the benefits of WebAssembly and Posix compatibility. Find out more about AppMaster on their official website, or check out the full guide on no-code/low-code app development for 2022.
