Python and ArcView GIS

[Bruce Dodson]

I think the confusion is on ArcView 3 vs. ArcView 4.  There is no such thing
as ArcView 4 yet, but the hype is that it will be based on a subset of
ArcInfo 8, and therefore will be totally COM based like ArcInfo.  ArcView 3
does not use COM in any way, shape or form.  It has a rich class heirarchy,
but those classes are not exposed through COM.  Nor can ArcView even act as
a COM/ActiveX client.  My theory is this is because everyone at ESRI who
knows anything about COM for has been working on ArcInfo 8 for the past 2-3
years.

Really, my extension is about controlling/executing Python from ArcView.
However, it's fair to say that the extension does allow for tighter
integration in the other direction as well.  It provides a function,
arcview.avexec, which allows you to run arbitrary Avenue scripts from
Python.  Since Avenue is the only published way to access the ArcView class
heirarchy, this is the tightest integration that I am able to achieve if I
want to publish the source code.

For Python scripts that are run from anywhere else than my extension, you
have to use use DDE to control ArcView (ugh!).

Hope this helps clear things up.

Bruce


Bernhard Reiter wrote in message
<85k96e$hn1$1 at newsserver.rrzn.uni-hannover.de>...
>There is still confusion in my head. :)
>I am not exactly sure if ArcView exposes COM objects right now.
>If is does, python could control ArcView and then you can also control
>other COM objects with python.
>
>If you embed python in ArcView, then python might get more control about
>ArcView. Of course when inside python you can also control other COM
objects.
>
>So the question is:
> Does your extension enable python to have more control about ArcView
> as it would have controling it over ArcView's COM objects from outsite?
>
> Do you need the python extension to expose ArcView capabilities
> to other programs?