Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 10 JavaScript execution speed compared among the major browsers of the Version
8 JavaScript engine. The score across the x-axis is computed from the results of seven demanding
tests. This tool is used by Google to optimize its Chrome browser (Kingsley-Hughes
2013
)
more slowly than the other major browsers. JavaScript execution speeds are shown
in Fig.
10
by browser and shows that IE is still the slowest in executing JavaScript.
Speed-battle.com does an interactive test of the browser
s performance, showing
differences between browsers and computer operating systems.
'
Length-of-Code The “length-of-code” criterion evaluates how much JavaScript
code is required to perform specific operations with an API. The underlying page-
length-code premise is that any JavaScript code using an API should only be one
page in length. Code that is longer than this indicates that the API is not properly
written to support
the needed operations,
thus requiring extra JavaScript
programming.
A general observation here is that the Leaflet API has much shorter code than
any of the other mapping APIs. In contrast, the OpenStreetMap API has the longest
code—while, perhaps, offering more functionality. The other mapping APIs fall
somewhere between these two extremes.
Cartographic Functionality This criterion examines specific cartographic func-
tions that are included in the API. All APIs include functions for adding points,
lines, and areas to the map. Some, like the Google Maps API, have more advanced
tools for making circles and other types of symbols. None have any of the advanced
