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Veodar
Technology · Rust in the browser
WebAssembly is a format that lets the browser run code written in languages such as Rust, at a speed close to that of an installed program and inside a box it cannot get out of. It is used to bring to the web a calculation a server does today, to share one core between the web and the desktop, and to let third parties extend your product without risk.
Often combined with
Situations
WebAssembly pays off when a web page has to do serious work by itself, or when the same code has to give the same result in several places.
Complex quotes, validations, processing of images or large files. Done in the browser it answers instantly, works offline and the data does not leave the machine.
The website, the desktop app and the server calculate the same thing, each with its own code, and sometimes they disagree. A single Rust core, compiled for all three, always gives the same result.
A calculation engine or a viewer written in C, C++ or Rust that forces people to install something today. Compiled to WebAssembly, it opens with a link.
Customers or partners who want to add their own rules to your product. Their code runs isolated, with access only to what you give it, and cannot bring down the rest.
Services
Four kinds of job. In all of them the module is a piece with no window: what changes is where it is placed.
Module 1 · Browser windowWhat a server does today, or what the page could not do, run on the machine of whoever uses it: no network waits and no sending the data.
Examples of deliverables
Module 2 · Three docksThe business rules written once in Rust and compiled for each place they are needed, with the same tests for all of them.
Examples of deliverables
Module 3 · Capsule pressAn engine written in C, C++ or Rust, compiled to WebAssembly and wrapped in a web interface, without rewriting what is already proven.
Examples of deliverables
Module 4 · Glass boxA plugin system for your product: third-party code runs in its box, with time and memory limits and access only to what it is granted.
Examples of deliverables
A working example
Working example. Type a Spanish tax ID (NIF) and press check: the letter is calculated by a WebAssembly module loaded in this page. No request is made to any server.
Made-up samples
Result
Type a NIF or pick a sample.
The module
Loading the module…
The module in this example is real WebAssembly, but minimal: a few dozen hand-written bytes that calculate a remainder. On a real job the module is compiled from Rust and does a good deal more. The sample IDs are made up.
Integration
A WebAssembly module is a piece with no window: someone gives it data and collects the result. What changes from one place to another is who hosts it.
Where it comes from
Where it goes
How we work and what we deliver
We look at the calculation or the program, which language it is in, how big it is and where it has to run.
We write down what goes into the module, which data crosses the boundary and what the result is compared against.
The module running in a test page with real data, next to the result of the original.
You test it on the browsers and machines your customers use, the most modest ones too.
How it is compiled, how it is loaded from the web and which tests make sure it gives the same everywhere.
Questions
Missing yours? Write it to info@veodar.com and we'll reply with a specific question, not a brochure.
No. The page is still HTML, CSS and JavaScript; WebAssembly takes care of the calculation part and JavaScript connects it to the screen. For a normal website it is not needed: it pays off when there is heavy work or code that already exists in another language.
Yes in current desktop and mobile ones, and it has for years. Some recent features reach some browsers before others, so we check what the module needs against the browsers your users have.
The module runs in the same isolated box as the rest of the page: it sees no files, network or foreign memory except what is passed to it explicitly. That is also the reason it is useful for running third-party extensions.
Close, for pure calculation. What counts most in practice is the size of the module, which has to be downloaded the first time, and the cost of passing data between JavaScript and the module. Both are measured and designed for.
No. The same module can run on a server, in a desktop app or at the edge of a delivery network. That is why it is used for sharing rules: written once and run wherever it is needed.
It can be compiled to WebAssembly as well. We work mostly with Rust, but an engine in C or C++ that already works does not have to be rewritten: it is compiled, wrapped and tested against the original.
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