3 files changed, 28 insertions, 14 deletions
diff --git a/cli/js/compiler_bootstrap.ts b/cli/js/compiler_bootstrap.ts
index 6de978750..31e5774bf 100644
--- a/cli/js/compiler_bootstrap.ts
+++ b/cli/js/compiler_bootstrap.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 import { ASSETS, Host } from "./compiler_host.ts";
 import { core } from "./core.ts";
 import * as dispatch from "./dispatch.ts";
-import { sendSync } from "./dispatch_json.ts";
+import { getAsset } from "./compiler_util.ts";
 
 // This registers ops that are available during the snapshotting process.
 const ops = core.ops();
@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ export const oldProgram = ts.createProgram({
   host
 });
 
-/** A module loader which is concatenated into bundle files.  We read all static
- * assets during the snapshotting process, which is why this is located in
- * compiler_bootstrap. */
-export const bundleLoader = sendSync(dispatch.OP_FETCH_ASSET, {
-  name: "bundle_loader.js"
-});
+/** A module loader which is concatenated into bundle files.
+ *
+ * We read all static assets during the snapshotting process, which is
+ * why this is located in compiler_bootstrap.
+ **/
+export const bundleLoader = getAsset("bundle_loader.js");
diff --git a/cli/js/compiler_host.ts b/cli/js/compiler_host.ts
index 3e6df4485..bff16757b 100644
--- a/cli/js/compiler_host.ts
+++ b/cli/js/compiler_host.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
 // Copyright 2018-2020 the Deno authors. All rights reserved. MIT license.
 
 import { MediaType, SourceFile } from "./compiler_sourcefile.ts";
-import { OUT_DIR, WriteFileCallback } from "./compiler_util.ts";
+import { OUT_DIR, WriteFileCallback, getAsset } from "./compiler_util.ts";
 import { cwd } from "./dir.ts";
-import { sendSync } from "./dispatch_json.ts";
-import * as dispatch from "./dispatch.ts";
 import { assert, notImplemented } from "./util.ts";
 import * as util from "./util.ts";
 
@@ -135,7 +133,7 @@ export class Host implements ts.CompilerHost {
       return sourceFile;
     }
     const name = url.includes(".") ? url : `${url}.d.ts`;
-    const sourceCode = sendSync(dispatch.OP_FETCH_ASSET, { name });
+    const sourceCode = getAsset(name);
     return new SourceFile({
       url,
       filename,
diff --git a/cli/js/compiler_util.ts b/cli/js/compiler_util.ts
index bff3bcd51..fbb30d67d 100644
--- a/cli/js/compiler_util.ts
+++ b/cli/js/compiler_util.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ import { ConfigureResponse, Host } from "./compiler_host.ts";
 import { SourceFile } from "./compiler_sourcefile.ts";
 import { sendSync } from "./dispatch_json.ts";
 import * as dispatch from "./dispatch.ts";
-import { TextEncoder } from "./text_encoding.ts";
+import { TextDecoder, TextEncoder } from "./text_encoding.ts";
+import { core } from "./core.ts";
 import * as util from "./util.ts";
 import { assert } from "./util.ts";
 import { writeFileSync } from "./write_file.ts";
@@ -89,12 +90,27 @@ function cache(
     assert(false, `Trying to cache unhandled file type "${emittedFileName}"`);
   }
 }
-
-const encoder = new TextEncoder();
+/**
+ * This op is called only during snapshotting.
+ *
+ * We really don't want to depend on JSON dispatch
+ * during snapshotting, so this op exchanges strings with Rust
+ * as raw byte arrays.
+ */
+export function getAsset(name: string): string {
+  const encoder = new TextEncoder();
+  const decoder = new TextDecoder();
+  const sourceCodeBytes = core.dispatch(
+    dispatch.OP_FETCH_ASSET,
+    encoder.encode(name)
+  );
+  return decoder.decode(sourceCodeBytes!);
+}
 
 /** Generates a `writeFile` function which can be passed to the compiler `Host`
  * to use when emitting files. */
 export function createWriteFile(state: WriteFileState): WriteFileCallback {
+  const encoder = new TextEncoder();
   if (state.type === CompilerRequestType.Compile) {
     return function writeFile(
       fileName: string,