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Google Earth API Will Be Retired On December 12, 2015
An anonymous reader writes Google [on Friday] announced it plans to retire the Google Earth API on December 12, 2015. The reason is simple: Both Chrome and Firefox are removing support for Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) plugins due to security reasons, so the API's death was inevitable. The timing makes sense. Last month, Google updated its plan for killing off NPAPI support in Chrome, saying that it would block all plugins by default in January and drop support completely in September. The company also revealed that the Google Earth plugin had dropped in usage from 9.1 percent of Chrome users in October 2013 to 0.1 percent in October 2014. Add dwindling cross-platform support (particularly on mobile devices), and we're frankly surprised the announcement didn't come sooner.
The reason why so relatively few dare putting their long-term stuff on Google App Engine: they suddenly feel the need for a spring cleanup and, boom, your investment goes south.
Yup, I went through the calendar api death amongst other things :(
Not that I'm complaining, but you really do need to pay attention to Google's plans if you have any applications that make use of their APIs. They do love to cast things adrift on a pretty regular basis. Maybe I don't do enough development to pay the proper attention, but does Google have a single source for announcements like this? Perhaps an RSS feed would work, then I could use Google Reader to keep an eye on things. Oh, right.
My UID is prime!
So what is NPAPI being replaced with across the browsers, please?
In Chrome, PPAPI. New versions of Adobe Flash Player already use it. In Firefox, asm.js. Adobe Flash Player is the only NPAPI plug-in that Firefox shall allow.
Nobody's banning (all) plugins AFAICT. Google is discontinuing support for a specific plugin API. Not the same thing at all.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Asm.js just about sums up everything that's wrong with Mozilla today (and that's a whole helluva lot!).
Asm.js is just JavaScript. That's all it is. It's JavaScript. Mind you, it's a subset of JavaScript that's awful for humans to work with, but it's still just a subset of JavaScript.
The first problem is, obviously, that asm.js is JavaScript. JavaScript is, by far, the worst mainstream programming language ever to have been created. It's riddled with unjustifiable flaws, from its very foundation to its very peak. I don't give a fuck if Brendan Eich only had a week to get it working, back in 1995. That was almost two decades ago. That's lots of time for these goddamn stupid problems to have been fixed many times over. Mozilla needs to get over their raging hardon for JavaScript. It's a bad language, and it needs to go.
The second problem is, obviously, that asm.js not a proper bytecode-based runtime like Java, .NET, or PNaCl, yet it's intended to be used as if it were a proper bytecode-based runtime. When you try to use some turds as a pair of boots in a storm, your feet will get soaked and smelly. It's the same principle when you try to use JavaScript as a replacement for a proper bytecode-based runtime.
The third problem is, obviously, that Mozilla keeps on pushing this idiocy, even when it's clear that asm.js is a fucking stupid idea and the wrong way of doing things. But that's just how Mozilla works these days. This we're-doing-the-wrong-thing-and-it's-obvious-but-let's-keep-on-doing-it-even-when-our-few-remaining-users-beg-us-not-do philosophy of theirs has extended to all of their projects, and it shows.
Jesus Christ, Mozilla, get rid of asm.js and use PNaCl. PNaCl is sensible, even if it did come from Google.
Asm.js needs to go! It's shit!
One of the things I do with Google Earth is install a GPS tracker on my cell phone and take it on a skydive. I use MyTracks to log my coordinates every second and use a little application I wrote to turn the MyTracks data into a KML file, detect where I deployed my canopy and drop a push-pin there and plot the jump on Google Earth so you can see the jump in 3D. MyTracks actually has an "Export to KML" option, but it doesn't handle altitude very well and just clamps your entire track to the ground. Apparently the developers didn't consider the "I'm 2.5 miles above the surface of the planet" use-case when they wrote the thing heh.
The cell phone isn't a great GPS tracker to use for this -- the GPS hardware in the Samsung Galaxy S5 I'm using now is actually almost usable. The S3 used to regularly lose 2/3rds of the points on my jump. There are custom skydiver GPS units available that have much higher accuracy, and they're used regularly in wingsuit competitions and stuff like that. It'd be really neat to plot an entire load of skydivers together on Google Earth and do a real-time replay of each one's position along their track during the jump. I could pull this off using the socket server method of putting KML into Google Earth and updating a new point for each wingsuit's location every second. It wouldn't even really be all that much work, but I don't really like how I'd have to do the design, and that's kept me from it.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
PPAPI is the modern interface for plugins.
By "modern" you mean Google Chrome only, right? Vendor lock-in does seem to be what "modern" means these days mostly.
Don't blame Mozilla for this. Google is intentionally keeping PPAPI exclusive to Chrome.
The API is not documented or standardized. A lot of parts of it are explicitly secret (only Google and select partners like Adobe know about them). The only standard is "it should do whatever it does in Chrome," and Google designs it around Chrome without any concern for accommodating other browsers. So even if Mozilla poured energy into reverse engineering it and implementing what would necessarily be a slower, less complete shadow of the Chrome version, Google could (and would) still pull the rug out from under you by changing the API next month. It's just not an option.
Google is being incredibly petty and anti-cooperative with this stuff and people act like they're Goddamn pioneers. It's the same shit you see with Android/Google Play, or with Mir in Ubuntu--they call it "open" but it's not open enough for anyone else to actually use.
Yes.
http://www.wordstream.com/arti...
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
It's so secret that they have their own Google Code page for it over at https://code.google.com/p/ppap... with full source available for download including SDKs for plugin developers.
First, Adobe can choose to make Adobe Flash Player for PPAPI available only through Google. Second, PPAPI is not frozen. Google can change behaviors behind Mozilla's back.
Because then Mozilla will go through all that effort to implement PPAPI but then Google will change PPAPI on a whim and it will break all the plugins on Firefox and people will ignorantly blame Mozilla, and then Mozilla will have to put all that effort into updating to the latest random revision of PPAPI only to rinse and repeat.
Uh, that repo's been dead for over 4 years. Says so right in the blurb: "Currently the canonical version of the PPAPI code has moved to the Chromium subversion repo". It's heavily integrated into Chrome now, and Google control all changes, so it's hardly ideal for a cross-browser plug-in API.