Comment by socalgal2
10 hours ago
The only reason to use the web is because it reaches everywhere. you then hoble it by making it not work in 2/3rds of the world you might as well have just shipped a native app.
Also, I think you're under estimating the amount of work required. No one wants your custom solutions. They want the OS solution. They want their OS IME that they use in every app, not the one you built from scratch for your "blat pixels to the page" app. They want their passkeys from their OS, which are only available via web features and are not available from "blat pixels to the page" apps. They want their auto correct to use all the words in their local OS dictionary but that's not available to "blat pixels to the page" apps. I could list several more issues like this
You appear to be misinformed. OS-level features like IMEs and dictionaries work in WASM as they do with any native application. There is nothing special about HTML elements that enables them in a way that doesn't work with WASM; they are, after all, OS features, not HTML features, and the browser is just another native application. If somebody chooses not to integrate OS features in their application, that's a reason not to use their application, but it really has nothing to do with WASM in any way whatsoever.
> The only reason to use the web is because it reaches everywhere. you then hoble it by making it not work in 2/3rds of the world you might as well have just shipped a native app.
I also think this is a ridiculously reductionist take. While I myself consider language support a priority (and incidentally, happen to believe for instance most Linux distros have long kneecapped the spread of Linux by not being accessible to non-Latin users) [and conversely believe WASM does not hobble language support, otherwise I would not be interested in it], that is not even close to "the only reason" to use the web. There are plenty of people in the world who host websites in only their native language. Even if you don't care to support foreign languages, deploying to the web gives you (a) instant cross-platform support with comparatively low effort and (b) zero friction to users, who can instantly use your application without an installation process which itself entails security risks. Would the use of WASM for a niche English text adventure put off Chinese users who might otherwise play the game if only it was written in HTML5? Probably not, they were never going to play the game in the first place.