Web development has had an interesting history, to say the least. Several (failed) attempts have been made to expand the platform to support different languages. Clunky solutions such as plugins failed to stand the test of time, and limiting a user to a single browser is a recipe for disaster.

WebAssembly was developed as an elegant solution to a problem that has existed since browsers were first able to execute code: If you want to develop for the web, you have to use JavaScript. Fortunately, using JavaScript doesn't have the same negative connotations it had back in the early 2000s, but it continues to have certain limitations as a programming language. In this section, we're going to discuss the technologies that led to WebAssembly to get a better grasp of why this new technology is needed.