On this WasmAssembly podcast episode, host Thomas Steiner speaks with David Kircos from Quadratic. They discuss how Quadratic’s spreadsheet utilizes WebAssembly to enable scientific computing directly in the browser, leveraging tools like Pyodide, pandas, and numpy. The conversation also covers practical challenges such as bundling large-scale Wasm applications, exploring browser limitations, and Quadratic’s integration of AI.
Chapters:
0:00 – Welcoming David Kircos from Quadratic
1:07 – What Quadratic is and what it does
3:24 – Rendering the cell grid with WebGL
6:58 – Where Quadratic uses Wasm and what for
11:39 – Code cells powered by Wasm
15:09 – Limitations for what you can do in the browser
19:27 – Massive scientific calculations in the browser
21:06 – Quadratic and the Memory64 proposal
25:25 – AI in code cells (with local LLMS?)
29:50 – AI at the spreadsheet level
33:45 – More programming languages in Quadratic
38:07 – Database integrations and SQLite Wasm
40:11 – Self-hosting Quadratic
42:47 – Wasm, but not
Resources:
David Kircos on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/4jcpQg6
Building on the modern web app architecture → https://goo.gle/4hPpcnH
Pyodide → https://goo.gle/445YEv9
Pandas → https://goo.gle/4ldvkcp
Numpy → https://goo.gle/3E1qSNb
Esbuild-wasm → https://goo.gle/4hRqNJL
Using JavaScript in a spreadsheet → https://goo.gle/3XIRk4W
Making API requests from your spreadsheets → https://goo.gle/3FQQPja
Quadratic Python roadmap: building a spreadsheet developers love → https://goo.gle/446dLot
ES module integration proposal → https://goo.gle/3C8wd3L
AI spreadsheets are here: Quadratic + GPT → https://goo.gle/4hZpFUB
Database connectors → https://goo.gle/3QXMs8g
SQLite Wasm → https://goo.gle/3FSn3dW
Quadratic’s GitHub organization → https://goo.gle/4jhWqNY
Watch more WasmAssembly → https://goo.gle/WasmAssembly
Subscribe to Chrome for Developers → https://goo.gle/ChromeDevs
#WebAssembly #Wasm #cloudphone #cloudfone #cloudmosa #ChromeForDevelopers #Chrome
Speaker: Thomas Steiner
Products Mentioned: Web Assembly (Wasm), Chrome, WebAssembly for Chrome