ArcInfo
| Developer(s) | Esri |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1982 |
| Stable release |
10.0 / 2010
|
| Operating system | Windows, Solaris, AIX, Tru64 UNIX |
| Available in | English |
| Type | GIS |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | ArcInfo Workstation -- Previous Versions |
ArcInfo (formerly ARC/INFO) is a full-featured geographic information system produced by Esri, and is the highest level of licensing (and therefore functionality) in the ArcGIS Desktop product line. It was originally a command-line based system. The command-line processing abilities are now available through the GUI of the ArcGIS Desktop product.
ESRI launched the first version of ARC/INFO - which it claims as "the very first modern GIS" - in 1982 on minicomputers. The name refers to its architecture as a geographic information system composed of:
The early releases of ARC/INFO comprised a set of FORTRAN programs linked together and accessed through a command-line interface built with the scripting language of the minicomputer (CPL on PRIMOS, DCL on VMS, etc.). The software was built under a paradigm of tools that could be used together within a command-line interface to perform GIS database development, geoprocessing, and output functions.
Subsystems were added for surface processing ("TIN") network analysis ("Network"), and survey data processing ("Cogo").
The release of ARC/INFO 4.0 included the advent of an "Arc executive" which processed commands with a new command-interpreter developed in FORTRAN and compiled for each platform, for performance and stability. The Arc Executive allowed the support of a command language specific to ARC/INFO: the ARC Macro Language (AML). This allows users automate input to the command line, and supports simple graphical user interfaces (menus and forms) for application-specific tools and applications. AML was largely based on CPL, the system scripting language of the original ARC/INFO development platform, PRIMOS. AML applications could be written to execute unmodified on all platforms supported by ARC/INFO.
As computing shifted towards Unix and Windows, ESRI followed by launching ARC/INFO on both platforms. The development platform for ARC/INFO moved to Sun Solaris at version 5.0, and to Windows at version 7.1.
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