The first thing to point out is that our implementation isn't pure WASM. We attempted to compile Postgres for WASM directly from source, but it was more complicated that we anticipated.
Crunchy's HN post provided some hints about the approach they took, which was to virtualize a machine in the browser. We pursued this strategy too, settling on v86 which emulates an x86-compatible CPU and hardware in the browser.
I’m out-of-domain but very curious about this part - it seems like a pretty extreme solution with a lot of possible downsides. Does this mean the “just compile native code to WASM” goal is still far off?
Crunchy's HN post provided some hints about the approach they took, which was to virtualize a machine in the browser. We pursued this strategy too, settling on v86 which emulates an x86-compatible CPU and hardware in the browser.
I’m out-of-domain but very curious about this part - it seems like a pretty extreme solution with a lot of possible downsides. Does this mean the “just compile native code to WASM” goal is still far off?