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### Deploying Rails Apps with WebAssembly 
Dan Phillips discusses the significant advantages of using WebAssembly (Wasm) for deploying Ruby on Rails applications. Wasm, traditionally associated with client-side web development, is now being explored for server-side applications, offering a modern alternative to virtual machines (VMs) and containers.

#### Key Points:
- **Introduction to WebAssembly:**  
  - WebAssembly is a safe, portable, low-level code format designed for efficient execution. It allows various programming languages to be compiled into a binary format that can run across different environments.  
- **Wasm on the Server:**  
  - Wasm enables deployers to isolate their applications better than with traditional methods, aiming for smaller, faster, and more secure deployments.  
- **Performance**:  
  - Cold start times for WebAssembly modules are significantly less than for containerized applications, with startup times reducing to approximately one to three milliseconds.  
- **The Evolution of Server Technologies:**  
  - Phillips likens the emergence of WebAssembly to a 'cloud infrastructure penicillin moment,' highlighting its potential to transform how we deploy applications. He references Solomon Hikes' statement that earlier implementation of WebAssembly could have negated the need for Docker.
- **Challenges with Ruby and WebAssembly:**  
  - Despite its promise, using Ruby in a WebAssembly environment poses challenges due to Ruby’s reliance on an operating system, dynamic linking, and file systems. 
  - The talk highlights error handling issues within Ruby's constructs that are not easily supported by WebAssembly's architecture.
- **Projects Tackling These Challenges:**  
  - The Scale Function Runtime allows the execution of multiple languages in WebAssembly via a plugin framework.  
  - The Boxer project enables users to compile Dockerfiles into WebAssembly binaries easily.  
  - Asyncify and Wacker are projects addressing stack management and native dependencies, respectively, simplifying the transition to WebAssembly.
- **Demo Showcase:**  
  - Phillips demonstrates a simple Ruby application compiled to WebAssembly, showcasing how it executes within different environments seamlessly. 
- **Conclusion:**  
  - WebAssembly represents a paradigm shift for server technology, favoring it over traditional container methods due to its faster startup times and improved security. It is poised to reshape how developers approach application deployment and functionality integration in the future.

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