Extension System Revision Plan

[andrewmd5]

The current extension system experiment has proven unsuccessful. The attempt to support multiple programming languages through WebAssembly (WASM) has resulted in an overly complex toolchain that significantly impacts portability.

Proposed Solution

Simplify to JavaScript-only extensions with the following architecture:

• Runtime Engine: Replace the current system with Hako as the JavaScript engine
• Compilation Strategy: Switch from wasmtime to WACS to enable Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compilation support

Benefits

This approach will:

• Eliminate toolchain complexity
• Improve portability across platforms
• Reenable AOT compilation and make extensions available on all platforms (including web.)
• Provide a single, well-understood language for extension development

Next Steps

1. Build a C# Hako embedder

[rlorenzoleal]

Hey! I'm planing to use bebop and have different code generators / chords for a personal project.

Assuming I start writing chords using the current typescript EDK... will they hold when this changes get implemented?

[andrewmd5]

The interface will be largely the same so it should be compatible. Instead of compiling to .wasm the extensions will just be JavaScript.