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I remember when inbox launched it could be only used under chrome/chromium. Then somebody changed their user agent in firefox to chrome and magically it started

by dkns 9y ago

I remember when inbox launched it could be only used under chrome/chromium. Then somebody changed their user agent in firefox to chrome and magically it started working just fine. So you might want to try that.

callahad 9y ago
Looks like the first hurdle is that it's relying on the deprecated document.registerElement API from an early draft of the Web Components specs, which prevents the app from booting in Firefox. Edit: Paul Kinlan reports that Earth is using PNaCl (https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378 https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378), which means it fundamentally can't run outside of Blink.
- Animats 9y ago
  Can somebody fix Google's code? It's just Javascript, right?
  - euyyn 9y ago
    It's just Javascript, but served from Google servers. For a fix to work for other users you'd need them to use a plugin that applies it.
    - Animats 9y ago
      At some point, it's using an API to get the map data. Is there anything that prevents non-Google hosted code from using that API?
      - zeptomu 9y ago
        Yes, rate-limits.
  - lern_too_spel 9y ago
    PNaCl is a binary executable format.
    - Animats 9y ago
      Is Google actually using that? That's IA-32 only. It won't run on ARM. What are they running on Chromebooks?
      - dragonwriter 9y ago
        > Is Google actually using that? That's IA-32 only. It won't run on ARM. Incorrect, PNaCl runs on both ARM and Intel. NaCl (without the P) had to be separately compiled for different platforms, PNaCl is portable.
- elldoubleyew 9y ago
  Just curious on why they would use PNaCl over WASM here? Wasn't WASM on track to becoming standard for native-speeds in the browser?
  - spankalee 9y ago
    Timelines. WASM just shipped. I'm sure Earth has been working on this for years.
  - lern_too_spel 9y ago
    Probably because PNaCl is available now and was available two years ago when they say they started.
- macNchz 9y ago
  > Paul Kinlan reports that Earth is using PNaCl (https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378 https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378), which means it fundamentally can't run outside of Blink. Reminds me of the good old days of ActiveX!
- spankalee 9y ago
  Earth uses Polymer, which works cross-platform using polyfills, so that's not what's making it Chrome-only. It's NaCl.
  - callahad 9y ago
    Either the polyfills aren't being shipped or their feature detection is broken, because I get "document.registerElement is not a function" in Firefox Nightly with a spoofed UA string, and I get marginally further if I turn on our experimental native support for Web Components: http://imgur.com/a/TgnrQ http://imgur.com/a/TgnrQ
    - spankalee 9y ago
      The polyfills aren't being shipped, since Earth is using NaCl which is already Chrome-only.
  - bzbarsky 9y ago
    Polymer's polyfills don't work very well, for what it's worth. Sometimes they get confused if things don't load from the network in the order they expect and start eating up gigabytes of RAM and all your CPU...
kyrra 9y ago
I believe Inbox had major performance issues in non-Chrome browsers at launch, which was something they fixed in the weeks following its initial release. Once those were fixed, it was opened up to other browsers.
- dblohm7 9y ago
  The Firefox bug was trivial to fix, but nobody at Google bothered to report it. If they had, it would have been a non-issue by the time that Inbox was released.

by dkns 9y ago

callahad 9y ago

Looks like the first hurdle is that it's relying on the deprecated document.registerElement API from an early draft of the Web Components specs, which prevents the app from booting in Firefox. Edit: Paul Kinlan reports that Earth is using PNaCl (https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378 https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378), which means it fundamentally can't run outside of Blink.

Animats 9y ago
Can somebody fix Google's code? It's just Javascript, right?
- euyyn 9y ago
  It's just Javascript, but served from Google servers. For a fix to work for other users you'd need them to use a plugin that applies it.
  - Animats 9y ago
    At some point, it's using an API to get the map data. Is there anything that prevents non-Google hosted code from using that API?
    - zeptomu 9y ago
      Yes, rate-limits.
- lern_too_spel 9y ago
  PNaCl is a binary executable format.
  - Animats 9y ago
    Is Google actually using that? That's IA-32 only. It won't run on ARM. What are they running on Chromebooks?
    - dragonwriter 9y ago
      > Is Google actually using that? That's IA-32 only. It won't run on ARM. Incorrect, PNaCl runs on both ARM and Intel. NaCl (without the P) had to be separately compiled for different platforms, PNaCl is portable.
elldoubleyew 9y ago
Just curious on why they would use PNaCl over WASM here? Wasn't WASM on track to becoming standard for native-speeds in the browser?
- spankalee 9y ago
  Timelines. WASM just shipped. I'm sure Earth has been working on this for years.
- lern_too_spel 9y ago
  Probably because PNaCl is available now and was available two years ago when they say they started.
macNchz 9y ago
> Paul Kinlan reports that Earth is using PNaCl (https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378 https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378), which means it fundamentally can't run outside of Blink. Reminds me of the good old days of ActiveX!
spankalee 9y ago
Earth uses Polymer, which works cross-platform using polyfills, so that's not what's making it Chrome-only. It's NaCl.
- callahad 9y ago
  Either the polyfills aren't being shipped or their feature detection is broken, because I get "document.registerElement is not a function" in Firefox Nightly with a spoofed UA string, and I get marginally further if I turn on our experimental native support for Web Components: http://imgur.com/a/TgnrQ http://imgur.com/a/TgnrQ
  - spankalee 9y ago
    The polyfills aren't being shipped, since Earth is using NaCl which is already Chrome-only.
- bzbarsky 9y ago
  Polymer's polyfills don't work very well, for what it's worth. Sometimes they get confused if things don't load from the network in the order they expect and start eating up gigabytes of RAM and all your CPU...

kyrra 9y ago

I believe Inbox had major performance issues in non-Chrome browsers at launch, which was something they fixed in the weeks following its initial release. Once those were fixed, it was opened up to other browsers.

dblohm7 9y ago
The Firefox bug was trivial to fix, but nobody at Google bothered to report it. If they had, it would have been a non-issue by the time that Inbox was released.