Today's News: Haskell in the Browser

The main segment explores a milestone for the web platform: the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) now runs entirely in modern browsers via WebAssembly (Wasm). Developers can write, compile, and run Haskell without any local setup, lowering the barrier to entry for education and experimentation. Wasm provides a portable, memory‑safe execution sandbox that delivers near‑native performance across browsers and other runtimes.

Technically, this is significant: GHC’s sizeable runtime—supporting lazy evaluation, type inference, and rich language features—has been adapted to the browser’s security model, addressing memory management and FFI constraints. The result is a practical path to trying advanced functional programming in a tab, with implications for teaching, demos, and potentially web apps that benefit from strong static types.

In security, researchers describe “HeisenTrojans,” a class of attacks targeting Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools rather than finished hardware. They report exploitable vulnerabilities in 83% of examined tools—covering buffer overflows, command injection, and memory corruption—raising the risk of silent netlist edits or backdoors during synthesis and layout. Because sign‑off checks validate geometry and timing rather than intent, such manipulations can evade traditional verification.

Finally, new cosmology results from DESI and the Union3 supernova catalog indicate a 4.2‑sigma deviation from the standard ΛCDM model, consistent with dark energy’s strength changing over time. If confirmed, this would prompt a significant re‑evaluation of the universe’s expansion history and long‑term fate, with scenarios ranging from slower expansion to eventual contraction.

Links

Main segment

• GHC Now Runs in the Browser
• MDN Web Docs: WebAssembly
• GHC WebAssembly Documentation
• Haskell.org: GHC

News

• Security: HeisenTrojans - 83% of Hardware Design Tools Have Exploitable Bugs
• Programming: GHC Now Runs in the Browser
• Weird: Is Dark Energy Getting Weaker?
• Background: Introduction to VHDL (Nandland)
• FCC to Rescind Ruling Requiring ISPs to Secure Networks
• Ubuntu 26.04 Will Use Rust for Core Linux Utilities
• MIT Physicists Find New Way to See Inside Atoms