MAPPLET - A CORBA-BASED GENOME MAP VIEWER

Motivation: There are a large number of genetic and physical maps, dis tributed at many sites. Each site offers different kinds of access met hods and viewers. CORBA, the defacto standard for distributed object-o riented computing, offers new opportunities to unify the view on these maps through standard interfaces. A collaboration of Infobiogen and t he EBI proposes a common IDL for maps. Results: A CORBA map viewer is presented which serves as a proof of concept for the proposed IDL. It demonstrates its usefulness in the context of map viewing and its abil ity to handle large maps with >1000 markers. The viewer gives access t o the maps of the Radiation Hybrid Database at EBI. It gives a quick o verview of several large maps side by side. The marker density at each map position is displayed and different marker types can be highlight ed.