Getting started with Rust and WebAssembly

2023/07/14

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WebAssembly (Wasm) is a binary instruction format supported by major browsers and runtimes. It offers near-native performance and is cross-platform and sandboxed. WebAssembly is commonly used as a compilation target for languages like Rust, C, C++, and C#. JavaScript can interface with WebAssembly, but this should be done carefully due to potential overhead.

To compile Rust to WebAssembly, there are different methods available. One option is to use Cargo make, which allows defining tasks in .toml files and invoking wasm-bindgen-cli. Another option is wasm-pack, a tool that simplifies workflows for compiling Rust to WebAssembly for use in the browser or Node.js. Webpack's Rust compilation is also an option, providing bundling and additional functionality for JavaScript.

In the process of compiling Rust to WebAssembly, a lib.rs file serves as the Rust entry point. It includes the wasm_bindgen library and CLI, which facilitates interactions between Rust and JavaScript.

use wasm_bindgen::prelude::*;

#[wasm_bindgen]
pub fn greeter(name: &str) -> String {
    format!("Hello {}!", name)
}

#[wasm_bindgen]
pub fn main() {
    // main function code here
}

This example demonstrates the usage of wasm_bindgen's prelude and the wasm_bindgen attribute. By leveraging Rust and WebAssembly, developers can create high-performance applications that can be executed in various environments.