Targeting WebAssembly Platforms & Distilling a Minimum Viable Python | Real Python Podcast #154

Are you familiar with the different versions of WebAssembly? Could WASM be the “write once, run everywhere” solution developers have searched for? Where does distributing Python applications fit in the narrative? This week on the show, we have CPython core developer Brett Cannon to discuss his recent articles about WebAssembly and MVPy.

👉 Links from the show: https://realpython.com/podcasts/rpp/154/

Brett has completed his Syntactic Sugar series, which we discussed in a previous episode. He details the origin of the series and his process of unearthing a minimum viable version of Python. Brett shares how he updated his PyCon US talk on the subject after feedback from presenting it at PyCascades.

We also dig deep into WebAssembly, specifically Web Assembly System Interface (WASI). Brett explains the concept of a “platform target triple” and the importance of defining what system CPython is compiled for. We also discuss WebAssembly becoming a ubiquitous distribution system.

Topics:

– 00:00:00 — Introduction
– 00:02:05 — PyCascades 2023
– 00:02:56 — Using social media for polls and checking interest
– 00:06:02 — Completing the Syntactic Sugar blog series
– 00:15:29 — Minimum Viable Python and WebAssembly
– 00:19:29 — Other teams focusing on WebAssembly
– 00:21:31 — Sponsor: Courier
– 00:22:13 — Stack of technology
– 00:26:50 — WebAssembly and it’s platform targets
– 00:32:35 — WASI and connecting to a runtime
– 00:38:33 — Extension modules and dynamic libraries
– 00:47:29 — Getting past road blocks and a new WASI assignment
– 00:51:51 — Video Course Spotlight
– 00:53:26 — PEP 11 & CPython platform support for WASI
– 01:03:11 — Machine specific runtime
– 01:04:57 — Write once, run everywhere
– 01:13:14 — Talks and summits planned for PyCon 2023
– 01:18:00 — Thanks and goodbye

👉 Links from the show: https://realpython.com/podcasts/rpp/154/