At it's basic level this is a wrapper for an http API for fetching map tiles to fill a viewport which spans a certain lat/lon range. It's really not all that complicated, I don't quite understand what's so specific to the Flash wrapper here. It certainly seems possible to create a basic http API that can be shared by multiple wrappers.
As for your anti-scraping worries. You've only make it harder, not impossible. And in the end you ended up inconveniencing those of us who wanted to be able to do screen shots, for something like 2 years. Could somebody take the open sourced version and hack it to dump all the google map tiles? Sure. They could also accomplish the same thing myriad other ways. And I am sure those that want to, have done so. "In addition, the build and release process for the Maps API for Flash is extremely tightly coupled to Google internal build tools, libraries, and processes...serving infrastructure for the dependencies of the API would need to be maintained, and backwards compatibility requirements for those dependencies would need to be enforced long term" Ah, so the writing is on the wall. The entire API will probably be discontinued eventually because of the these added cost. I've learned my lessen. I will find somebody else who wants to take my money to create and support a flash based mapping API. On Sep 7, 3:57 am, Thor Mitchell <[email protected]> wrote: > Open source was one of the options we considered. However although it is a > reasonable option for a standalone piece of software, the Maps API for Flash > has significant dependencies on Google infrastructure and services that make > this impractical. > > Many of these services expose data that is licensed from third parties and > subject to strict branding, attribution, and anti-scraping requirements and > measures. There is no way we can open source the API for Flash and maintain > those protections. In addition, the build and release process for the Maps > API for Flash is extremely tightly coupled to Google internal build tools, > libraries, and processes. Untangling all of these dependencies would take a > significant amount of engineering investment. Finally, the serving > infrastructure for the dependencies of the API would need to be maintained, > and backwards compatibility requirements for those dependencies would need > to be enforced long term. These two requirements amount to a significant > portion of the ongoing cost of offering the API, so committing to this would > undermine our goals for deprecation (to free up resources to work on the JS > API). > > Consequently we concluded that open sourcing the API is not a feasible > option for us. > > Many thanks, > > Thor. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API For Flash" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-api-for-flash?hl=en.
