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Goals.md

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Component Model High-Level Goals

(For comparison, see WebAssembly's original High-Level Goals.)

  1. Define a portable, load- and run-time-efficient binary format for separately-compiled components built from WebAssembly core modules that enable portable, cross-language composition.
  2. Support the definition of portable, virtualizable, statically-analyzable, capability-safe, language-agnostic interfaces, especially those being defined by WASI.
  3. Maintain and enhance WebAssembly's unique value proposition:
    • Language neutrality: avoid biasing the component model toward just one language or family of languages.
    • Embeddability: design components to be embedded in a diverse set of host execution environments, including browsers, servers, intermediaries, small devices and data-intensive systems.
    • Optimizability: maximize the static information available to Ahead-of-Time compilers to minimize the cost of instantiation and startup.
    • Formal semantics: define the component model within the same semantic framework as core wasm.
    • Web platform integration: ensure components can be natively supported in browsers by extending the existing WebAssembly integration points: the JS API, Web API and ESM-integration. Before native support is implemented, ensure components can be polyfilled in browsers via Ahead-of-Time compilation to currently-supported browser functionality.
  4. Define the component model incrementally: starting from a set of initial use cases and expanding the set of use cases over time, prioritized by feedback and experience.

Non-goals

  1. Don't attempt to solve 100% of WebAssembly embedding scenarios.
    • Some scenarios will require features in conflict with the above-mentioned goal.
    • With the layered approach to specification, unsupported embedding scenarios can be solved via alternative layered specifications or by directly embedding the existing WebAssembly core specification.
  2. Don't attempt to solve problems that are better solved by some combination of the toolchain, the platform or higher layer specifications, including:
    • package management and version control;
    • deployment and live upgrade / dynamic reconfiguration;
    • persistence and storage; and
    • distributed computing and partial failure.
  3. Don't specify a set of "component services".
    • Specifying services that may be implemented by a host and exposed to components is the domain of WASI and out of scope of the component model.
    • See also the WASI FAQ entry.