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Web-interoperable Runtimes Community Group

The Web-interoperable Runtimes Community Group (wintercg) is intended to augment the work of other existing community and working groups focusing on the development of Web Platform features and APIs by focusing directly on the specific needs of non-Web Browser based implementations. Whereas existing community groups such as the Web Incubator Community Group (WICG) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) are each explicitly scoped to features "that would be implemented in a browser or similar user agent", it will be the goal of the wintercg to focus on implementation of those same features in environments such as backend servers, serverless compute, IoT, command-line tools, and so forth -- essentially, everything that is not a browser.

wintercg
Group's public email, repo and wiki activity over time

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Goodbye WinterCG, welcome WinterTC

[Reblog from the W3C Blog: Collaborating across W3C and Ecma for web-interoperable server runtimes through WinterTC]

The W3C Web Interoperable Runtimes Community Group (“WinterCG”) and Ecma International (the organization which standardizes ECMAScript, also known as JavaScript) have collaborated to create a new Ecma Technical Committee, TC55 – Web-interoperable server runtimes, dubbed “WinterTC”, for the development of a common web-aligned API surface for server-side JavaScript runtimes like Node.js, Deno and Cloudflare Workers.

Developers these days are increasingly working “full-stack”, writing code for the client side (often web browsers) and the server side (often based on JavaScript). Reusing web platform APIs reduces developers’ cognitive load and allows some logic to be shared between client and server, or easily migrated from one to the other. This sharing is increasingly employed in technologies like server-side rendering (SSR) and server actions.

For the past two years, the W3C Web Interoperable Runtimes Community Group (“WinterCG”) has been working to strengthen the convergence of server JavaScript runtimes with the web platform by defining a common base for JavaScript in web-interoperable server environments.

WinterCG’s most prominent work item is the “minimum common API“, which defines the subset of the web platform to be supported across all web-interoperable server environments. Further, WinterCG drives development on the web platform itself, as implemented in browsers, e.g., Response.json and AsyncContext. WinterCG serves as a place to gather requirements from server environments, to be solved for and standardized in other existing standards venues, including Ecma International’s TC39, WHATWG and various W3C Working Groups, when server and browser needs to align.

After incubating the “minimum common API” in WinterCG, the WinterCG participants decided to charter an Ecma Technical Committee, TC55 – Web-interoperable server runtimes, (“WinterTC”), which will host the effort to standardize this API. The cooperation between venues builds off of decades of experience collaborating between W3C and Ecma International on ECMAScript (a.k.a. JavaScript) and the web platform.

Once Ecma TC55/WinterTC is set up fully, all WinterCG work will move there and the existing community group will close. WinterTC’s work with W3C is not over though: “We still have a lot of work to do“, says Luca Casonato, previously co-chair of WinterCG and now co-chair of Ecma TC55/WinterTC. “W3C is very central to the web platform, and a lot of the work from WinterCG touches existing web platform APIs. This means that Ecma TC55 participants and W3C will continue to work together closely.

Luca continues: “The W3C Community Group programme enabled us to start work on unifying server side and web browser JavaScript very quickly. It is a great programme that I can recommend to anyone in a similar position to ours. We are very grateful to W3C for providing us with such an excellent home over the last couple years.

We encourage participation between W3C members and Ecma TC55 to further the development of a unified “full-stack” platform incorporating JavaScript and web technologies, across web servers and clients.

We are glad to see this work proceed from a W3C Community Group,” said Philippe Le Hégaret, W3C Strategy and Project Lead. “Congratulations to the Winter Community Group on chartering Ecma Technical Committee, TC55. We look forward to future collaborations with the W3C WebAppSec (WebCrypto API), WebApps (FileAPI), WebPerf (HR-TIME) and WebAssembly (WASM-*) Working Groups, to effectively address and meet the needs of the community.

Ecma is pleased to announce the formation of TC55 (Web-interoperable server runtimes), a collaborative effort with W3C that reflects our commitment to serving the community,” said Samina Husain, Ecma International Secretary General. “I commend W3C WinterCG for their dedication and foundational contributions, which have laid the groundwork for this important new technical committee in Ecma.

Learn more about WinterTC and Ecma’s TC55 website, as well as announcements from Ecma, Igalia and Deno.

Call for Participation in Web-interoperable Runtimes Community Group

The Web-interoperable Runtimes Community Group has been launched:


The Web-interoperable Runtimes Community Group (WinterCG — https://wintercg.org/) is intended to augment the work of other existing community and working groups focusing on the development of Web Platform features and APIs by focusing directly on the specific needs of non-Web Browser based implementations. Whereas existing community groups such as the Web Incubator Community Group (WICG) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) are each explicitly scoped to features “that would be implemented in a browser or similar user agent”, it will be the goal of the wintercg to focus on implementation of those same features in environments such as backend servers, serverless compute, IoT, command-line tools, and so forth — essentially, everything that is not a browser.


In order to join the group, you will need a W3C account. Please note, however, that W3C Membership is not required to join a Community Group.

This is a community initiative. This group was originally proposed on 2022-04-22 by James Snell. The following people supported its creation: James Snell, Luca Casonato, Romulo Cintra, Benjamin Gruenbaum, Tobias Nießen. W3C’s hosting of this group does not imply endorsement of the activities.

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W3C Community Development Team