Now to just write the processing code in something that compiles to WebAssembly, and you can start copying and sending ArrayBuffers to your workers!

Or I guess you can do it without the WebAssembly step.

A JSON.toBuffer would be another good addition to V8. There are a couple code paths that look like they might do this, but from all accounts it goes Object->String->Buffer, and for speed you want to skip the intermediate.

I was actually imagining skipping the Object step; if you go from wire -> buffer, and only ever work on it in buffer form (i.e. in WebAssembly, in a language more amenable to working on buffers/bytes), you skip needing the Object -> JSON step. Notwithstanding whatever you need to do in the wire -> buffer step.

Working with bytes in JS is still gross and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Like I said, if you had a way to automate it, it wouldn’t be so bad.