ESRI Developer Summit 2008 Questions And Answers

ESRI has posted the questions and answers that many developers and users out their had before attending the Developer Summit in Palm Springs next week.

Dear Developer:

I want to thank you for your feedback on the summit questionnaire. Please read the responses to your questions below before attending the ESRI Developer Summit (DevSummit).

Although you share many concerns with the broader ESRI user community, I also understand that, as a developer, you have some unique challenges. I urge you to share insight into your interests and suggestions with the ESRI staff at the summit.

While developing with ESRI technology will be the major focus at this summit, there will also be opportunities to share and learn about applications and successful GIS implementations. As always, reach out to those who are new to the ESRI developer community and make them feel welcome and connected.

Best regards,

Jack Dangermond

Some questions of highlight for me are the following:

What’s new at ArcGIS Mobile 9.3?

In addition, the ArcGIS Mobile platform at 9.3 will include improvements to the software developer kit (SDK) providing

• A new naming convention for mobile service map caches
• Enhanced map control rendering to support multiple data sources and graphic layers
• Improved data storage capabilities
• Expanded projections covering both grid- and nongrid-based ArcGIS projects
• Improved editing and new sketch tools for manipulating geometries
• Increased GPS performance
• Signed cabinet file (CAB) including ArcGIS Mobile runtime components

I have already been working with ArcGIS Server 9.3 and using the ArcMobile 9.3 stuff. I have to say I am very impressed. Unfortunately I cannot share much more information but I’m sure the development teams will be showing us all the cool stuff at the Developer Summit next week. They have done a great job with ArcMobile 9.3 so look out for it.

What are ESRI’s plans for future releases of ArcIMS?

ArcIMS provides simple map services and is a widely used Web-based GIS mapping application. ArcIMS 9.2 was the first release that shared the same Application Development Framework (ADF) as ArcGIS Server. After the release of 9.2, ESRI began focusing its efforts on adding functionality to ArcGIS Server rather than ArcIMS since the ArcGIS Server architecture allows for a more flexible and functionally rich system design. As a result, ArcIMS 9.3 includes the improved ADF and few other changes. We plan to release ArcIMS 9.4 in a similar manner.

Great to hear that ESRI will still be releasing future versions of ArcIMS. I read a few people out there wondering about the future of ArcIMS and I think this provides an insight into what ESRI’s plans are.

Are you planning 64-bit versions of ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server?

ArcGIS Desktop is fully supported on 64-bit Windows at 9.2 SP 3 and beyond. While ArcGIS is a 32-bit application, it has been tested and certified on the 64-bit versions of Windows. We have no immediate plans to release a native 64-bit version of ArcGIS Desktop, although we do continue to research this possibility. 

At ArcGIS 9.2, we released 64-bit versions of the ArcSDE component of ArcGIS Server for some UNIX platforms. At 9.3, we will also release a native 64-bit version of ArcSDE technology for Windows and Linux.

This is another big question that many people have been talking about. I have been running ArcGIS 9.2 and ArcGIS Server 9.2 on Microsoft Windows Vista x64 for quite a while now. It runs under 32-bit mode but works really well. I’m happy to hear to that ArcSDE 9.3 will be a native 64-bit application.

Will there be a replacement for MapObjects? In other words, will there be options for desktop deployments that don’t require the full functionality of ArcGIS Engine?

Yes, we are doing some research work on building a focused, lightweight .NET API deployment option with functionality similar to MapObjects. We will discuss our thoughts at the DevSummit Plenary. We encourage your feedback both at the summit and in the postsummit survey.

This is great to hear. I am looking forward to discussing this and hearing the thoughts at the Developer Summit Plenary.

Discuss compatibility with Visual Studio 2008.

ArcGIS 9.3 will support Visual Studio 2008 in ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Engine, and ArcGIS Server for customization and development. In addition, ArcGIS 9.3 will continue to support Visual Studio 2005.

Awesome. Since we are using .NET 3.5 for some of our projects we have been using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 as our development IDE. ESRI will be support both 2005 and 2008 which is great.

How many people are registered for the summit?

As of March 11, there were 1,209 people registered. Approximately 60 percent noted that this will be their first ESRI Developer Summit.

I still remember back to the first Developer Summit and the number of users that attended. This is a massive increase and I am even more impressed that 60% of the users will be attending their first Developer Summit!

So it’s not long to go now. We fly out for tomorrow evening from Auckland, headed to LA and then onto Palm Springs. I think the excitement of the Developer Summit is starting to kick in. There is so many cool new features in ArcGIS 9.3 that I think it’s going to impress many people.

The full list of Questions and Answers from the Developer Summit can be found here: http://events.esri.com/uc/QandA/index.cfm?ConferenceID=85D76321-1422-2413-1909B6A0FB87BFF7.