What can you build with WASM?
Published: 2023-01-21 11:17:44


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/h5d9ue3qh7fkx3l21auo.png)

WebAssembly (WASM) is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine. It is designed as a portable target for the compilation of high-level languages like C, C++, and Rust, enabling deployment on the web for client and server applications.

One of the main advantages of WASM is its small size and fast execution. Because it is a binary format, it can be loaded and executed quickly, making it an excellent choice for performance-critical tasks like gaming, video and image processing, and cryptography.

### Should you use WASM?

There are several reasons why WebAssembly (WASM) is an attractive option for web development:

- **Performance**: WebAssembly is designed to be a portable target for the compilation of high-level languages like C, C++, and Rust, allowing for near-native performance on the web. This makes it an excellent choice for performance-critical tasks like gaming, video and image processing, and cryptography.

- **Small size**: WebAssembly code is a binary format, which means it can be loaded and executed quickly. Because it is a compact format, it can be downloaded faster and take up less space than equivalent JavaScript code.

- **Language support**: WebAssembly supports multiple programming languages, including C, C++, and Rust. This allows developers to use their existing knowledge and skills to build web applications.

- **Interoperability**: WebAssembly can be used in conjunction with JavaScript, which makes it easy to integrate with existing web apps and frameworks. This allows developers to use the best of both worlds.

- **Security**: WebAssembly is designed with security in mind, and it runs inside a sandboxed environment. This makes it a good choice for building secure web apps that perform cryptographic operations such as encryption and decryption.


Progressive enhancement: WebAssembly can be used to progressively enhance web apps, providing better performance for users on modern browsers while still providing a functional experience for users on older browsers.

Developing cross-platform apps: WebAssembly can be used to create apps that run on multiple platforms, including web, mobile, and desktop, with little to no modification.

### Getting Started 

![getting started with wasm assembly](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/i0jr17ovdhyfbbpozkt2.png)

Getting started with WebAssembly (WASM) projects can be done in several ways, depending on the language you are using and the development environment you are working in. Here are some general steps to get started:

- **Install the necessary tools**: To start working with WebAssembly, you will need to have a few tools installed on your computer. These include a WebAssembly binary toolchain, such as Binaryen or LLVM, as well as a WebAssembly runtime, such as Wasmtime or Wasmer. You can find instructions for installing these tools on the respective websites.

- **Choose a programming language**: WebAssembly supports several programming languages, including C, C++, and Rust. If you are new to WebAssembly, it might be easier to start with a language you are already familiar with.

- **Write your code**: Once you have the necessary tools and have chosen a language, you can start writing your code. When writing WebAssembly code, it's important to keep in mind that it is designed to be run on a stack-based virtual machine, so you will need to use stack operations instead of register operations.

- **Compile your code**: After writing your code, you will need to compile it to the WebAssembly binary format (.wasm). You can use a tool like Emscripten to do this for C and C++ code, or you can use the WebAssembly Binary Toolkit (WABT) for other languages.

![deploy wasm app](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/t0xdg8mhkyrgsneduv1o.png)

> To easily get started with WebAssembly, you can try out some of the example repositories available on GitHub. Here are a few to check out:

- [wasm-game-of-life](https://github.com/rustwasm/wasm_game_of_life): This is an example of a Game of Life implementation built with WASM.

- [wasm-examples](https://github.com/Hanks10100/wasm-examples): This repository contains several examples of using WebAssembly with different languages, including C, C++, and Rust.

- [wasm-crypto-examples](https://github.com/originjs/crypto-js-wasm): This repository contains examples of using WebAssembly for cryptography, including a WebAssembly implementation of the popular encryption library OpenSSL.

- [wasm-machine-learning](https://github.com/tqchen/tvm-webgpu-example): This repository contains examples of using WebAssembly for machine learning, including a WebAssembly version of TensorFlow.js.

### Here are a few examples of what you can build with WASM:

- **Games**: WASM allows for high-performance gaming on the web, with several examples such as the popular game "2048" which is built with WASM.

- **Image and video processing**: WebAssembly can be used to build image and video processing apps that run on the web. A good example of this is the wasm-imagemagick project, which is a WebAssembly port of the popular image manipulation library.


## Summary
> Overall, WebAssembly is a powerful tool that can be used to build high-performance web apps that run smoothly on all devices. With its small size, fast execution, and support for multiple languages, it is becoming an increasingly popular choice for web development. With the above examples, you can start experimenting and build your own web apps with WebAssembly.