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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

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 10y ago
Can somebody fix Google's code? It's just Javascript, right?
- euyyn 10y 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 10y 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 10y ago
      Yes, rate-limits.
- lern_too_spel 10y ago
  PNaCl is a binary executable format.
  - Animats 10y ago
    Is Google actually using that? That's IA-32 only. It won't run on ARM. What are they running on Chromebooks?
    - dragonwriter 10y 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 10y 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 10y ago
  Timelines. WASM just shipped. I'm sure Earth has been working on this for years.
- lern_too_spel 10y ago
  Probably because PNaCl is available now and was available two years ago when they say they started.
macNchz 10y 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 10y ago
Earth uses Polymer, which works cross-platform using polyfills, so that's not what's making it Chrome-only. It's NaCl.
- callahad 10y 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 10y ago
    The polyfills aren't being shipped, since Earth is using NaCl which is already Chrome-only.
- bzbarsky 10y 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...

Animats 10y ago

Can somebody fix Google's code? It's just Javascript, right?

euyyn 10y 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 10y 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 10y ago
    Yes, rate-limits.
lern_too_spel 10y ago
PNaCl is a binary executable format.
- Animats 10y ago
  Is Google actually using that? That's IA-32 only. It won't run on ARM. What are they running on Chromebooks?
  - dragonwriter 10y 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 10y 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 10y ago
Timelines. WASM just shipped. I'm sure Earth has been working on this for years.
lern_too_spel 10y ago
Probably because PNaCl is available now and was available two years ago when they say they started.

macNchz 10y 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 10y ago

Earth uses Polymer, which works cross-platform using polyfills, so that's not what's making it Chrome-only. It's NaCl.

callahad 10y 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 10y ago
  The polyfills aren't being shipped, since Earth is using NaCl which is already Chrome-only.
bzbarsky 10y 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...