Approximate geolocation

[antosart]

WebKittens

No response

Title of the proposal

Approximate geolocation

URL to the spec

https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/approximate-geolocation/blob/main/README.md

URL to the spec's repository

https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/approximate-geolocation

Issue Tracker URL

No response

Explainer URL

No response

TAG Design Review URL

No response

Mozilla standards-positions issue URL

mozilla/standards-positions#1193

WebKit Bugzilla URL

No response

Radar URL

No response

Description

Allow websites to request approximate location via the Geolocation API.

[annevk]

Thanks for requesting review!

I don't understand the need for accuracyModes. Why can't you just detect if the accuracyMode dictionary member is present using the usual throwing technique?

[antosart]

How can you detect whether a dictionary member is present?

[nondebug]

@annevk If that's possible I would prefer to do that instead of introducing the accuracyModes array. I think we can't rely on throwing since current implementations don't throw when encountering unexpected PositionOptions.

[domenic]

Here is how you detect if a dictionary member is implemented:

function browserImplementsAccuracyMode() {
  try {
    navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
      () => {},
      () => {},
      {
        get accuracyMode() { throw new Error('1'); },
        get enableHighAccuracy() { throw new Error('2'); }
      }
    );
  } catch (e) {
    if (e.message === '1') {
      return true;
    }
    console.assert(e.message === '2');
    return false;
  }
  console.assert(false, 'this code will never be reached');
}

[antosart]

Thanks @domenic!

[antosart]

Thank for pointing that out. I think that makes sense, opened explainers-by-googlers/approximate-geolocation#6.

[alvinjiooo]

Hi @annevk ,
Any initial thoughts on the Approximate Geolocation proposal ?
We'd love to hear your idea. Thanks!

[annevk]

I filed explainers-by-googlers/approximate-geolocation#9 and explainers-by-googlers/approximate-geolocation#10 after some more discussion with colleagues (which hasn't quite concluded just yet).

[annevk]

@antosart thank you for quickly following up on our feedback. After a bit more discussion colleagues and I would now like to nominate this as "position: support". If there's no further feedback we'll resolve it as such one week from now.