GameMaker Language (GML) vs. JavaScript vs. WebAssembly vs. XSharp (X#) Comparison Chart

The GameMaker Language (also called simply GML) is the proprietary GameMaker scripting language. This language is structured to permit users to create their games in an intuitive and flexible way while offering all the power of any other major programming language. It is also the basis for GML Visual and can be used in conjunction with that if required. Each event has its own tab in the editor and you can add, edit, or remove code from them at any time (for more information on events see Object Events). The code itself must have a basic structure and can contain resource indices, variables, functions, expressions, keywords, etc. all of which are explained in the sections below. If you are a novice to programming or making the switch from GML Visual, it is recommended that you start with the page on basic code structure and then read through all the other pages in this section, testing code from each one within GameMaker itself.

WebAssembly (abbreviated Wasm) is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine. Wasm is designed as a portable compilation target for programming languages, enabling deployment on the web for client and server applications. The Wasm stack machine is designed to be encoded in a size- and load-time-efficient binary format. WebAssembly aims to execute at native speed by taking advantage of common hardware capabilities available on a wide range of platforms. WebAssembly describes a memory-safe, sandboxed execution environment that may even be implemented inside existing JavaScript virtual machines. When embedded in the web, WebAssembly will enforce the same-origin and permissions security policies of the browser. WebAssembly is designed to be pretty-printed in a textual format for debugging, testing, experimenting, optimizing, learning, teaching, and writing programs by hand. The textual format will be used when viewing the source of Wasm modules on the web.