Technical Note E-SIG -> SG : Area 3 Support for maintaining the existing tooling for WASI Preview 1

[woodsmc]

Based on the Alternative_Solutions_(WASI_Wasm).md provide a concise presentation on the general use case for Embedded and WASI 0.1, along with the set of features we would need to see added to the WASI 0.1 specification.

[loganek]

Thanks @woodsmc for opening the ticket. From my team's perspective having a LTS p1 toolchain support is a viable alternative. We'd also be happy to co-maintain the toolchain for the foreseeable future. We primarily build our solutions in Rust in C++ (at least the ones that get compiled to WASM) so support for those two languages is critical for us.

As for the functionality required, I'd like us to have there the following:

• wasi-threads, including atomic opcodes and synchronization primitives (it already exists in p1, so we just need to make sure it continues to work)
• exceptions
• [optionally] sockets - we currently use WAMR-specific extension and the shim layer for sockets
• [optionally] memory64 - we haven't decided yet whether we need that, but we might in the future.

[woodsmc]

Just adding context here for any new arrivals at this issue. Following a discussion within the BCA and the E-SIG the concept of creating a LTS (Long Term Support) version of WAMR + the WASI SDK was discussed. This would be focused on WASI 0.1 (P1). It has been discussed between a number of E-SIG members. This issue was created to try to understand two things:

1. Clearly articulate why we need additional support
2. Define what type of support we really want - what does LTS mean, exactly.

Following an E-SIG meeting it was suggested that a document to capture this discussion would be the best way to go. Rather than dealing with GitHub PRs - which work amazingly well for code, but are hard when dealing with a written document, it was suggested that this conversation could happen on a Google Document, and the resulting final document transferred back to Git.

The Google Document - On What LTS really means (exactly):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hNSmG4j7WDcqULuh1bn5fjsyzOjV7GyY/edit