Python Component Tooling Meeting 2023-04-06

Agenda

• Update on componentize-py prototype
• Update on "dynamic linking" for Wasm
• SIG status
• Schedule next meeting (after Kubecon, probably)
• Anything else?

Notes

https://github.com/bytecodealliance/governance/blob/main/SIGs/SIG-dynamic-languages/proposal.md

• Asen: VMWare WASM labs
  • looking at PHP at the moment
  • want legacy apps to move to Wasm seamlessly
  • validate tools (e.g. find omissions)
  • limited cycles for Python for next month or two
• Kevin: PHP under wasm or vice versa? Asen: PHP under wasm
  • some stuff working, some not
  • SingleStore is interested for DB UDFs
  • all open source in GitHub - https://github.com/vmware-labs/webassembly-language-runtimes
  • Asen interested in helping with all dynamic languages
• Brett having success with PHP and Ruby builds
• Brett posted latest 3.11 and 3.12 build artifacts as part of tier 2 work
• Jamey spoke with Luke about dynamic linking
  • started to morph into something else
  • spoke with manager about original version and going from there
  • Luke would like component-oriented version, but Jamey would like more core module focused
  • Key idea: library has symbols which might conflict with other libs
    • take static lib and preprocess and remove all exported symbols and put them in a separate table
    • make above table available to dlopen/dlsym
    • concat function tables
  • Brett: for context, this is solving the native lib packaging problem
  • Luke would like:
    • separate compilation, resident in memory once (e.g. multitenant)
    • should "feel" more like the rest of the component linking
    • weird to message "dynamic linking but not really"
  • Perhaps Jamey's approach could lay foundation for Luke's vision
  • Kevin: dlopen really needs to work in order to make it seamless
  • Brett: agreed; don't diverge too much from existing platforms
  • Jamey wondering about dlopen taking file paths; would rather not be in filesystem basis
    • could be abstract string
    • Brett: need to be able to implement both a finder and a loader
      • could be custom for Wasm without file paths, but would diverge significantly from other platforms
      • but how does that work with packaging
  • Joel: needs to be position-independent code

Action items