A Different Kind of Serverless: A Case Study for SQLite and Whisper.cpp

Wasm, or WebAssembly, is an open standard designed to support any language on any operating system. It enables running compiled code from languages like Rust, C++, or Go in the browser, offering major portability.

Popular applications using WebAssembly include Figma, CapCut, 1Password, Google Earth, uBlock Origin, and Leachess. These applications leverage Wasm for improved performance and capabilities in the browser.

WebAssembly allows browser-based applications to run more performant code by compiling languages such as C++ or Rust to Wasm, providing real data structures and memory access, which can be faster and more efficient than JavaScript.

Limitations of using WebAssembly in the browser include a lack of direct DOM access, higher potential RAM usage, and the need to run in a WebWorker. Outside the browser, system access may be limited without a WASI runtime.

WASI, or the WebAssembly System Interface, is a standard designed to provide a POSIX-like feature set to WebAssembly, enabling functionalities like file I/O and networking within Wasm code.

Common languages used with WebAssembly include C, C++, Rust, and Go. Other languages with varying support include C#, Zig, Lua, and more.

WebAssembly can be run outside of the browser using tools like Xtism, WasmTime, Spin SDK, and Wasmer, which provide server-side runtimes and environments for executing Wasm code.

Security concerns with WebAssembly include its binary format, which can be obfuscated and harder to analyze than JavaScript, and shared array buffers, which require secure contexts to mitigate vulnerabilities like Spectre Meltdown.

Orderly is an application built for voice dictation of books and blog posts, using WebAssembly combined with technologies like SQLite in the browser and whisper.cpp for transcription, allowing it to run without a server.

Hosting considerations for WebAssembly applications include the need for proper header configuration to support shared array buffers and OPFS. Services like Render, Netlify, or VPS can be used for hosting models and applications.