Issues and Causes in WebAssembly Applications

This document is an empirical study that investigates the issues and their underlying causes in WebAssembly (Wasm) applications. The study analyzes developer interactions on GitHub and Stack Overflow, focusing on 385 issues from 12 open-source Wasm projects and 354 related question-answer posts. The research identifies 120 types of issues categorized into 19 subcategories and 9 main categories, creating a taxonomical classification of the problems faced by developers. Additionally, the study conducts a root cause analysis, identifying 278 types of causes categorized into 29 subcategories and 10 main categories. The findings provide a structured framework that can assist developers in diagnosing and addressing various problems in Wasm applications. The taxonomies of issues and causes derived from this study lay the groundwork for further research and improvement in the WebAssembly ecosystem, offering guidelines for designing, developing, and refactoring Wasm-based applications.