Comments on EarthBrowser: KML, libkml and the "standard" mistake

I'll happily take some heat for the lack of higher...

2008-04-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

I'll happily take some heat for the lack of higher level functionality in the current preview release of libkml. Indeed, the second sentence of the release notes cautions against use in production code at this early stage. :-)

We do intend to implement various higher level "engine" elements such as style merging. Thanks for the very constructive criticism, lxnyce. Good to hear that we're headed in the right direction.

I agree with you Jason to a certain level. The sta...

2008-04-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

I agree with you Jason to a certain level. The standardization will keep out foreign extensions.

However, where I disagree, is that by standardizing, the format ends up being frozen. While I am no fan of Google holding onto a format, perhaps it's best to let them innovate atop the format at a much higher rate (listening to their huge user base requests), rather than let it stay stagnant for a year or two, then release updates that were useful a year or two ago.

I respectfully disagree. Now is the most importan...

2008-04-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

I respectfully disagree. Now is the most important time to standardise KML, before all of the implementers start adding their own extensions and we end up with the mess that HTML became.

I expect Google to be heavily involved in shaping KML through the OGC, and although I don't doubt that this will slow innovation, I feel that standardisation is worth it.

libkml is incredibly alpha right now; the release notes talk about adding higher level functionality, so hopefully some of the levels of hierarchy will go away for common operations.

I really agree with you thoughts about KML and sta...

2008-04-15T04:36:00.000-07:00

I really agree with you thoughts about KML and standardizing, however I kind of like the idea of having a library that does all the hard lifting for me.

Like yourself, I have implemented KML readers in the past. I transitioned to using LibKML recently, and I must say the library is ... for the lack of better words, not pretty.

It looks like they had some intern slap it together for them. It's hard to follow and the amount of hierarchies you have to go through is quite ridiculous.

The compelling argument I keep telling myself, is that updates to the reader will come automatic. Deep down, I know this is just me trying to validate using the library. The reality is that new features won't break old ones, so using the library won't give you them for free.

As of right now, I haven't seen a good reason to use the library really. It doesn't handle LOD calculations or region calculations for you. It simply parses the file and gives you interfaces for the data. I am hoping once I hit styles, using the library will pay off. I implemented the style map in the past, but hopefully this library will do all the aggregation for me.