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No. Java is a language. WASM is a byte code compile target. A better comparison would be the JVM, such as a language like Scala that is definitely not Java still compiles to the JVM and can run anywhere there is a JVM.

> I wonder how one would solve linking to native libraries

Either use WASM outside the browser (I don't even know if that's a thing) or create some sort of import mechanism using JavaScript.



> No. Java is a language [...] A better comparison would be the JVM

I think the point was that it's a reinvention of "write once run everywhere", which had its own problems at the time (such as native libraries). Java introduced the idea, and arguing the fact that the JVM is the reason why it works is a touch pedantic in this discussion.

> Either use WASM outside the browser (I don't even know if that's a thing)

That's what TFA is doing.


Actually, Oberon first came with it, with JIT compilation of intermediate code into the target code.


The concept goes back all the way to Xerox PARC workstations and Pascal UCSD.


> use WASM outside the browser (I don't even know if that's a thing)

Not mainstream, but absolutely a thing. There's people even looking at running it in Ring 0.

https://github.com/nebulet/nebulet


I thought Java was both a language and a virtual machine target. You can compile programs written in other languages for it's VM like Clojure.




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