SQLite gets wasm support
SQLite announced official support for wasm. Specifically, support for browser targets via emscripten. The goal is to support persisting data client-side via the Origin Private File System browser API, which isn’t ready yet.
For context, SQLite is a public-domain database that’s become the go-to embedded database across lots of software (we use it in Plane).
Previously, browsers attempted to standardize a built-in SQLite API via the Web SQL Database standard, but it failed to become a standard and browser support is currently mixed.
One reason this is exciting is that SQLite makes a good application file format. Instead of having to write its own binary serialization format, and having to concern itself with file corruption, applications can use a SQLite database as a program data structure and get persistence, referential integrity, atomic transactions, and queries out of the box.
Diode is pretty fun
Kenneth Cassel launched Diode last week and it’s pretty neat.
I’ve played with circuit simulators before that use circuit diagrams as the interface. Diode instead takes a skeuomorphic approach, using ThreeJS to render an actual breadboard that you can pan and zoom around.
Elsewhere
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Felt wrote about how they generate tile sets from arbitrary files dragged into the app.
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Unfolded Studio, which was acquired by Foursquare last May, has been re-launched as Foursquare Studio. I don’t know if this was the case before the re-launch, but there are now some nifty demos that you can play with without signing in.
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CoWasm describes itself as collaborative WebAssembly for servers and browsers, and as an alternative to Emscripten built with Zig. I haven't had a chance to dig in yet, but William Stein is behind it, so I'll be keeping an eye on it. William is behind SageMath, one of the first (if not the first) browser-based Python shells.
Until next time,
Paul