As a means to learn about both WebAssembly and Rust, I started writing a WebAssembly binary decoder (i.e. a parser for `.wasm` files) from scratch.
Recently it hit v3 spec conformance. (I'm executing the upstream spec test suite.)
I don't plan to make it a highly-performant decoder for use in production environments, but rather one that can be used for educational purposes, easy to read and/or debugging issues with modules. That's why I decided not to offer a streaming API, and why I'll be focusing on things like good errors, good code docs etc.
I followed the same testing approach when writing a Wasm binary parser (technically, a decoder)[0].
It was pretty helpful having the official spec suite available and a major boost of confidence that your parser is compliant.
Nevertheless, it was my own tests that found a regression in the latest published version of the spec[1], which shows how important it is to have a variety of implementations.
Tangential: I decided to write a Wasm parser (more precisely, a decoder the the Wasm binary format) from scratch, as a means to learn both Wasm and Rust[0].
It was the first time I was writing this sort of thing, but I found the spec very clear and well-written.
Fun fact: I was surprised when the test from a toy parser surfaced a real regression in version 3 of the spec[1], released roughly 4 months before.
Slowly but steadily implementing support for version 3 of the Wasm specification in my wasm parser (written from scratch): https://github.com/agis/wadec
I plan to continue building the hobby project I started (a Wasm module parser[1]) by implementing version 3 of the WebAssembly specification and eventually implementing the Validation phase.
I'd say jump straight to the specification (maybe v2, which is simpler).
But I occasionally saw one or two articles around where they explain how the binary format works, which could be a good introduction before jumping to the spec.
As a means to learn about both WebAssembly and Rust, I started writing a WebAssembly binary decoder (i.e. a parser for `.wasm` files) from scratch.
Recently it hit v2.0 spec conformance. 3.0 is next on the roadmap. (I'm executing it against the upstream spec test suite.)
I don't plan to make it a highly-performant decoder for use in production environments, but rather one that can be used for educational purposes, easy to read and/or debugging issues with modules. That's why I decided not to offer a streaming API, and why I'll be focusing on things like good errors, good code docs etc.
Really happy to see Pat keeping it up! His first Ruby under a Microscope book but also his blog posts are amazing and a major source of inspiration for me. I did meet him personally in a Euruko conference. Such a great person.
As a means to learn about both WebAssembly and Rust, I started writing a WebAssembly binary decoder (i.e. a parser for `.wasm` files) from scratch.
Recently it hit v2.0 spec conformance. 3.0 is next on the roadmap. (I'm executing it against the upstream spec test suite.)
My aim is probably not for it to become a highly-performant decoder for use in production environments, but rather one that can be used for educational purposes and/or debugging issues with existing modules. That's why I decided not to offer a streaming API, and why I'll be focusing on things like good errors, good code docs etc.
As a Rust newbie and seasoned Go dev, I'm pretty interested to knownwhere would people experienced in both OCaml and Haskell, would put it in the spectrum.
As a means to get into WebAssembly, I started writing a WebAssembly binary decoder (i.e. a parser for `.wasm` files) from scratch.
Recently I started executing the upstream spec tests against it, as a means to increase spec conformance. It's non-streaming, which is a non-starter for many use cases, but I'm hoping to provide a streaming API later down the road. Also, the errors interface are still very much WIP.
All that said, it's getting close to a fully-conformant one and it's been a really fun project.
Recently it hit v3 spec conformance. (I'm executing the upstream spec test suite.)
I don't plan to make it a highly-performant decoder for use in production environments, but rather one that can be used for educational purposes, easy to read and/or debugging issues with modules. That's why I decided not to offer a streaming API, and why I'll be focusing on things like good errors, good code docs etc.
https://github.com/agis/wadec
P.S. I'm new to the language so any feedback is more than welcome.