Why Rust and WebAssembly?

Low-Level Control with High-Level Ergonomics

JavaScript Web applications struggle to attain and retain reliable performance.JavaScript's dynamic type system and garbage collection pauses don't help.Seemingly small code changes can result in drastic performance regressions ifyou accidentally wander off the JIT's happy path.

Rust gives programmers low-level control and reliable performance. It is freefrom the non-deterministic garbage collection pauses that plague JavaScript.Programmers have control over indirection, monomorphization, and memory layout.

Small .wasm Sizes

Code size is incredibly important since the .wasm must be downloaded over thenetwork. Rust lacks a runtime, enabling small .wasm sizes because there is noextra bloat included like a garbage collector. You only pay (in code size) forthe functions you actually use.

Do Not Rewrite Everything

Existing code bases don't need to be thrown away. You can start by porting yourmost performance-sensitive JavaScript functions to Rust to gain immediatebenefits. And you can even stop there if you want to.

Plays Well With Others

Rust and WebAssembly integrates with existing JavaScript tooling. It supportsECMAScript modules and you can continue using the tooling you already love, likenpm, Webpack, and Greenkeeper.

The Amenities You Expect

Rust has the modern amenities that developers have come to expect, such as:

• strong package management with cargo,

• expressive (and zero-cost) abstractions,

• and a welcoming community! 😊