Microsoft, Mozilla, Google and others have teamed up to develop a new binary format for the Web. The companies are working on a new project called “WebAssembly” which is a compilation target for the Web.

Microsoft stated:

At Microsoft, we strongly believe that the compile-to-web story has a promising future. Working towards this future, we are adding special optimizations for asm.js in Edge on Windows 10. We think this is the start of an exciting path for having your non-JavaScript source code run quickly and harmoniously with the rest of the web, and we can continue building on what we’ve done with asm.js to make compiling to the web even better.

WebAssembly delivers JavaScript files in a binary format which is able to load faster than regular JavaScript text files, which will speed up website loading time on browsers, especially on mobile. Microsoft has shared its goal for WebAssembly, which follows below:

• Interoperability with JavaScript: The web already has a vibrant ecosystem, and anything we add should interface nicely with it.

• Broad language support: We should be able to compile your code from your language of choice.

• High performance: To be a viable way to bring your programs to the web, we need close to native performance.

Currently, the companies are experimenting and discussing the design ideas for WebAssembly. It’ll be very interesting to see how the project progresses in the near future – what do you think? Discuss in the comment section below!

Source: Microsoft, JF Bastien (Google), Mozilla – Via: TC
http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-teams-up-with-mozilla-and-google-to-develop-a-new-binary-format-for-the-web/

Microsoft officially confirmed that it’s bringing Cortana to iOS and Android. The software giant is planning to release separate apps for each mobile operating system to enable its digital assistant to run outside of Windows. Microsoft is only providing an early look at those apps today, but the company notes that you’ll be able to make the same queries and ask the same questions using Cortana across Windows, iOS, or Android. The Cortana companion will be available for Android in late June and iOS later this year.

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