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ESRI Announces MapObjects for Windows

Redlands, California-ESRI, the world leader in geographic information
systems (GISs) and mapping software, has announced the development of
MapObjects for Windows, an object-linking and embedding (OLE) Custom
Control (OCX) for use by applications developers in building mapping
applications or incorporating mapping components into existing
applications.

ESRI's MapObjects for Windows is an OCX and a set of OLE-compliant
programmable objects that let application developers embed dynamic map
displays in Windows applications. OLE is the most widely supported
object-based software integration architecture available today. Reusable
OLE components, which developers use to build applications, are becoming
the standard building blocks for development and integration. OLE custom
controls, or OCXs, provide a powerful substrate upon which developers can
craft products.

Developers can use MapObjects with popular programming environments, such
as Visual Basic, Delphi, PowerBuilder, Visual C++, and other
industry-standard development environments, to build custom, OLE-compliant
mapping and GIS applications.

Benefits for Application Developers

MapObjects reduces the amount of programming needed to deliver a customized
solution that includes desktop mapping or GIS functionality. In addition,
by operating in standard development environments, MapObjects lets
application developers choose from a wide variety of interchangeable
components. MapObjects also provides the technology to enable a variety of
applications that are not easily built with standard GIS software.
Examples include:

 o Data publishing
 o Non mapcentric applications (e.g., adding mapping components to a
   spreadsheet or database application)
 o ESRI's Spatial Database Engine (SDE) display and query interfaces
 o Lightweight, small footprint map data viewers
 o Highly customized specialty applications for specific markets

"MapObjects is just what applications developers have been asking for,"
says Bernie Szukalski, MapObjects product manager at ESRI. "By giving
developers the ability to add mapping functionality to existing
applications, we'll see amazing growth in our developer community and new
market potential for developer products."

Requirements

Hardware: MapObjects and applications built with MapObjects are targeted
for the Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems. The minimum
hardware requirements for using applications built with MapObjects are the
same as for Windows 95 (486 DX processor at 33 MHz with 8 megabytes of
RAM). Applications built with MapObjects will not run under Windows 3.x or
earlier versions of Windows.

Software: MapObjects can be used to build applications in development
environments that support the use of OLE controls such as Visual Basic
4.0, Delphi, and forthcoming versions of PowerBuilder.

Data: MapObjects can be used with shapefiles, georeferenced images, and SDE
databases. The same extensive collection of sample data packaged with
ESRI's ArcView GIS Version 3.0 will be included with MapObjects.

Availability

ESRI began beta testing MapObjects for Windows in February 1996. Final
product availability is scheduled for May 1996.

ESRI was founded in 1969 as a research group devoted to improving methods
of handling georeferenced data. ESRI is the leading developer of GIS
software with over 100,000 clients worldwide. ESRI also performs
consulting and data automation services related to geographic information
management. In addition to its headquarters in California, ESRI has a
network of U.S. and international offices as well as more than 300
distributors of its software and data around the world.
 
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