First step towards Blazor goodness

As a learning activity, I wanted to work with Microsoft framework called Blazor (combination of two technologies, Browser and Razor). Blazor is based on W3C standard called "WebAssembly".

As per W3C, "WebAssembly (abbreviated Wasm) is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine. Wasm is designed as a portable target for compilation of high-level languages like C/C++/Rust, enabling deployment on the web for client and server applications"

Looking at the formal description from W3C above, one can list following characteristics of wasm

• It is a binary instruction format for a virtual machine. Similar to single physical machine hosting multiple virtual machines(VMs), multiple wasm software modules can be hosted in single browser
• wasm is a portable target indicating any wasm module can run on multiple browsers (like chrome, firefox, edge) on multiple OSs without any modifications/recompilations
• wasm is target for compilation of high-level languages like C/C++/Rust, indicating developers can use any high-level language for development as long as it produces software module adhering to wasm binary instruction format
• wasm software modules can be run at client and server and this opens up possibilities for code sharing

Following are major features of Microsoft provided blazor framework.

• Component model for UI development using razor based syntax
• Routing, Forms and validations
• Dependency injection
• Javascript interop for exchanging data+messages from javascript to DOTNET and vice versa
• NET standard 2.0 compliant namespaces, APIs and services that allow code sharing between client and server
• Server-side rendering for SEO and quick first page load
• Mono based runtime to run software modules developed using DOTNET framework
• Ability to run on older (non-WebAssembly) browsers via asm.js

For details about Microsoft version of wasm and blazor, you can follow below articles and websites

• blazor-university: All things blazor
• Blazor server -vs- client comparison: Comparison between client side and server side blazor in simple language

I will discuss more details about blazor in future articles