The Digital Press

A developer shares a detailed and candid exploration of porting a complex C codebase, including multithreading and SIMD, to run efficiently in web browsers via WebAssembly and Emscripten. The guide covers setup, modularizing libraries, handling callbacks, multithreading, persistent storage, and browser-specific challenges.

Why it matters: WebAssembly enables near-native performance for complex C/C++ applications running portably inside web browsers, opening new possibilities for web apps.

The big picture: Despite Emscripten's abstractions, developers face "leaky abstractions" with web workers, browser security policies, storage APIs, and cross-browser compatibility challenges.

Quick takeaway: Multithreading in browsers requires special HTTP headers and web workers; persistent storage uses IndexedDB, complicating file handling in C code.

Commenters say: Readers appreciate the in-depth, practical approach and share related experiences, while noting JavaScript quirks and challenges in porting native apps to the web environment.