A comprehensive demonstration of WebAssembly integration in modern web development, showcasing high-performance calculations and dynamic content management in the browser.
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Yutian Yan, Tengfei Tu, Lijian Zhao, Yuchen Zhou, and Weihang Wang. 2021. Understanding the performance of webassembly applications. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 533–549. https://doi.org/10.1145/3487552.3487827
This project demonstrates the power of WebAssembly (WASM) technology by creating a fully functional dynamic website that runs WebAssembly modules directly in the browser. The website features a responsive design, interactive navigation, and real-time performance comparisons between WebAssembly and JavaScript execution.
- WebAssembly Integration - Direct execution of WASM bytecode in the browser
- Performance Benchmarking - Real-time comparison between WASM and JavaScript execution speeds
- Dynamic Navigation - Single-page application with smooth page transitions
- Responsive Design - Mobile-friendly interface with modern CSS Grid and Flexbox
- Cross-Browser Compatibility - Works on all modern browsers supporting WebAssembly
- Hand-crafted WebAssembly bytecode for mathematical operations
- Graceful fallback to JavaScript when WASM is unavailable
- Performance monitoring and metrics display
- Modular JavaScript architecture with event-driven navigation
- CSS animations and transitions for enhanced user experience
├── index.html # Main HTML file with embedded CSS and JavaScript
├── README.md # This documentation file
└── assets/ # (Optional) Additional resources
- Modern web browser with WebAssembly support (Chrome 57+, Firefox 52+, Safari 11+, Edge 16+)
- Web server (for local development) or GitHub Pages for hosting
- Fork or clone this repository
- Go to repository Settings → Pages
- Select "Deploy from a branch" → main branch → / (root)
- Access your website at
https://yourusername.github.io/repository-name
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/webassembly-demo.git
cd webassembly-demo- Start a local web server:
# Using Python 3
python -m http.server 8000
# Using Node.js
npx http-server
# Using PHP
php -S localhost:8000- Open
http://localhost:8000in your browser
Simply open index.html in your web browser (some features may be limited due to CORS restrictions)
- Use the Navigate dropdown menu in the top-right corner to switch between pages
- Pages include: Home, About, Services, Contact, and WebAssembly Demo
- Navigate to the "WebAssembly Demo" page
- Click the "Run WebAssembly Calculation" button
- View the results showing:
- Mathematical calculation results
- Performance comparison between WASM and JavaScript
- Execution time metrics
The demo automatically runs performance benchmarks comparing:
- WebAssembly execution time for 50,000 mathematical operations
- JavaScript execution time for the same operations
- Speed ratio showing performance difference
The project includes a hand-crafted WebAssembly module that performs integer addition:
// WebAssembly bytecode for addition function
var wasmCode = new Uint8Array([
0x00, 0x61, 0x73, 0x6d, // WASM magic number
0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // Version 1
// ... function definition and exports
]);initWasm()- Initializes the WebAssembly modulerunWasmDemo()- Executes performance comparisonshowPage(pageId)- Handles navigation between pagestoggleDropdown()- Manages dropdown menu interactions
The code includes automatic fallback mechanisms:
- WebAssembly detection and graceful degradation
- JavaScript-only execution when WASM is unavailable
- Cross-browser event handling
- Create a new
<div>with classpageand unique ID in the HTML - Add navigation link in the dropdown menu
- Content will automatically inherit the styling
- Compile your C/C++/Rust code to WebAssembly
- Replace the
wasmCodearray with your compiled bytecode - Update the function calls to match your exported functions
All CSS is embedded in the <style> section of index.html:
- Modify color scheme by changing CSS custom properties
- Adjust animations by updating
@keyframesdefinitions - Responsive breakpoints are handled through CSS Grid auto-fit
| Browser | Version | WebAssembly Support |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | 57+ | ✅ Full Support |
| Firefox | 52+ | ✅ Full Support |
| Safari | 11+ | ✅ Full Support |
| Edge | 16+ | ✅ Full Support |
Typical performance improvements observed:
- Simple calculations: 1.5-3x faster than JavaScript
- Complex mathematical operations: 2-10x faster than JavaScript
- Memory-intensive operations: 3-15x faster than JavaScript
WebAssembly not loading:
- Ensure you're accessing the page via HTTP/HTTPS (not file://)
- Check browser console for error messages
- Verify WebAssembly support in your browser
Navigation not working:
- Check browser console for JavaScript errors
- Ensure all function names match between HTML and JavaScript
- Verify dropdown menu is properly initialized
Performance metrics showing unexpected results:
- Performance varies by device and browser
- Results may be affected by browser DevTools being open
- Try refreshing the page and running the test again
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/new-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -am 'Add new feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/new-feature) - Create a Pull Request
- Test across multiple browsers and devices
- Verify WebAssembly functionality in both development and production
- Check responsive design on various screen sizes
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
- WebAssembly Community for excellent documentation
- MDN Web Docs for comprehensive browser compatibility information
- Modern web development practices and standards
Note: This is a demonstration project. For production applications, consider using established WebAssembly toolchains like Emscripten, wasm-pack (Rust), or AssemblyScript for more complex functionality.


