A novel approach to provide map symbolization sharing service based on DCOM

The study of map symbols is one of the basic problems of cartography. Map symbols and map symbol library is also one of the core issues of geographic information systems and mapping software. The varieties of GIS systems and mapping software have unusual map symbol definitions, different depicting ways, and different application purposes and approaches. It is a serious problem to share map symbol and symbolization among different GIS systems and mapping software due to differences in data structures, map symbol model, map symbol drawing mechanism, symbolization interfaces and so on. This article presents a novel approach to share map symbolization service based on DCOM with a vector map symbol model. The approach has a high efficiency on the LAN, WAN and the Internet to share map symbol or map symbolization service.