ArcGIS Engine Developer Guide

GLOSSARY
URL
usage time
utility COM object
variant
VB
VBA
VBVM
vector
virtual directory
Visual C++
W3C
wait time
Web application
Web application template
Uniform Resource Locator. A standard format for the addresses of Web sites. A
URL looks like this: www.esri.com. The first part of the address indicates what
protocol to use, while the second part specifies the IP address or the domain
name where the Web site is located.
The amount of time between when a client gets a reference to a server object and
when the client releases it.
A COM object that encapsulates a large number of fine-grained ArcObjects
method calls and exposes a single coarse-grained method call. Utility COM objects
are installed on a GIS server and called by server applications to minimize
the round-trips between the client application and the GIS server. See also Component
Object Model.
A data type that can contain any kind of data.
Visual Basic. A programming language developed by Microsoft based on an object-oriented
form of the BASIC language and intended for application development.
Visual Basic runs on Microsoft Windows platforms.
Visual Basic for Applications. The embedded programming environment for
automating, customizing, and extending ESRI applications, such as ArcMap and
ArcCatalog. It offers the same tools as Visual Basic in the context of an existing
application. A VBA program operates on objects that represent the application
and can be used to create custom symbols, workspace extensions, commands,
tools, dockable windows, and other objects that can be plugged in to the ArcGIS
framework.
Visual Basic Virtual Machine. The runtime environment used by Visual Basic code
when it runs.
1. A coordinate-based data model that represents geographic features as points,
lines, and polygons. Each point feature is represented as a single coordinate pair,
while line and polygon features are represented as ordered lists of vertices. Attributes
are associated with each feature, as opposed to a raster data model,
which associates attributes with grid cells. 2. Any quantity that has both magnitude
and direction. See also raster.
A directory name, used as a URL, that corresponds to a physical directory on a
Web server.
A Microsoft implementation of the C++ language, which is used in the Microsoft
application Visual Studio, producing software that can be used on Windows
machines.
See World Wide Web Consortium.
The amount of time it takes between a client requesting and receiving a server
object.
An application created and designed specifically to run over the Internet.
A file that contains a user interface as well as all the code and necessary files to
use as a starting point for creating a new customized Web application. ArcGIS
Server contains a number of Web application templates.
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