WebAssembly JS String Builtins & the ESM Integration

[guybedford]

What is the issue with the HTML Standard?

I wanted to bring the WebAssembly ESM Integration issue on string builtins up here WebAssembly/esm-integration#95 and to be added to the WhatNOT agenda.

The JS String Builtins proposal is a WebAssembly Phase 4 proposal that supports compile-time builtin imports to be turned on via the builtins compile-time option to WebAssembly.compile. When enabled, the wasm:js-string module name is used as a special module name which provides useful JS string methods. This "import" is not otherwise listed as an import when inspecting the WebAssembly.Module imports so behaves more like global intrinsic linkage like Array in Javascript modules than a modular import (and it can't be virtualized when the builtin is enabled).

This proposal is already shipping in browsers for the JS API, and sought Tag review at the time. In the Wasm ESM Integration we are looking to enable string builtins by default which would therefore apply in HTML as well, so it was suggested to raise for further discussion in a web context. Alternative suggestions for where to bring this proposal up are very welcome too.

[guybedford]

I see the next meeting is at a time I likely can't make, removing the agenda label for now to re-add for the subsequent one in two weeks.

[guybedford]

I've marked this item for the 27/02 meeting agenda //cc @annevk @eqrion.

[annevk]

I wonder if @whatwg/modules has any feedback on this.

[guybedford]

For more info on the follow-up discussion from today's meeting, see the new tracking issue in WebAssembly/js-string-builtins#47.