I had the enormous pleasure of joining BackendlessConf and talking with a long-time friend and colleague, Dan Zajdband, about the future of the web.
Recorded in 2019, this conversation explores WebAssembly, Rust, and the WebXR Device API as part of the web’s possible future.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
Three ideas from the conversation
- The link is still powerful. We talk about sharing immersive experiences through a URL and using familiar web skills to create them.
- WebAssembly can work alongside JavaScript. The interesting question is which parts of an application benefit from it, rather than whether every website should use it.
- More capability brings questions about trust. Running more computation in the browser also means thinking about whose resources we use and what the person visiting the page has agreed to.
Jump to a topic
Approximate timestamps in the recording:
- 0:24 — WebXR and immersive storytelling
- 4:01 — Getting started with A-Frame and HTML
- 11:45 — Client-side computation and the path to WebAssembly
- 20:00 — Learning resources, Rust, and choosing a first project
- 26:11 — Browser capabilities, trust, and user consent
- 29:21 — Bringing more languages and developers to the web
Thanks to the Vercel team, then ZEIT, for the opportunity and for organizing the conference.