
Cloud Computing Without Containers - cek
https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloud-computing-without-containers/
======
divbzero
The downside mentioned in the blog post is worth calling out:

> No technology is magical, every transition comes with disadvantages. An
> Isolate-based system can’t run arbitrary compiled code. Process-level
> isolation allows your Lambda to spin up any binary it might need. In an
> Isolate universe you have to either write your code in Javascript (we use a
> lot of TypeScript), or a language which targets WebAssembly like Go or Rust.

It’s also worth noting that for JavaScript the Workers Runtime environment [1]
is more similar to the browser than to Node.js. Thus you cannot include NPM
packages directly, _e.g._ you could not simply:

    
    
      const express = require('express')
    

[1]:
[https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/reference/apis/sta...](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/reference/apis/standard/)
"Workers Runtime APIs"

~~~
kentonv
In practice you can use tools like Webpack to process npm imports as a build
step, and Cloudflare's own tooling (Wrangler) can run Webpack for you
automatically.

However, it is true that npm modules that require Node.js-specific APIs won't
work.

(Disclosure: I'm the tech lead for Workers.)

------
mahesh_rm
Interesting take, and it makes a lot of sense. Is there an open source
framework for handling isolates dedicated to serverless functionality out
there?

