ArcInfo (formerly ARC/INFO) is a full-featured

geographic information system A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and Geographic information system software, software that store, manage, Spatial analysis, analyze, edit, output, and Cartographic design, visualize Geographic data ...

produced by

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

, and is the highest level of licensing (and therefore functionality) in the

ArcGIS ArcGIS is a family of client, server and online geographic information system (GIS) software developed and maintained by Esri. ArcGIS was first released in 1982 as ARC/INFO, a command line-based GIS. ARC/INFO was later merged into ArcGIS De ...

Desktop product line. It was originally a

command-line A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user-friendly alternativ ...

based system. The command-line processing abilities are now available through the GUI of the ArcGIS Desktop product.

History

ARC/INFO

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: # geographic input, processing, and output tools ("ARC") with # a complementary, but separate database ("INFO")INFO, a single-user, relational database product developed by Henco, Inc., now supported by Doric. Inc. Retrieved fro
doric.co.uk
/ref> 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 In computing, a script is a relatively short and simple set of instructions that typically automation, automate an otherwise manual process. The act of writing a script is called scripting. A scripting language or script language is a programming ...

of the minicomputer (CPL on

PRIMOS PRIMOS is a discontinued operating system developed during the 1970s by Prime Computer for its minicomputer systems. It rapidly gained popularity and by the mid-1980s was a serious contender as a mainline minicomputer operating system. With t ...

, DCL on VMS, etc.). The software was built under a paradigm of tools that could be used together within a

command-line interface A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via command (computing), commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user ...

to perform GIS database development, geoprocessing, and output functions. ESRI added subsystems 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 interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

s (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,

. AML applications could be written to execute unmodified on all platforms supported by ARC/INFO. As computing shifted towards

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, 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. ESRI released a subset of ARC/INFO functionality as PC ARC/INFO for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

in 1987 and later a version for Windows using a

dBase dBase (also stylized dBASE) was one of the first database management systems for microcomputers and the most successful in its day. The dBase system included the core database engine, a query system, a Form (programming), forms engine, and a pr ...

tables (instead of INFO) for tabular data and a 'Simple Macro Language' (SML).

GRID

ARC/INFO 6.0 added a major subsystem (GRID) for raster processing. The underlying raster processing software framework (and "ESRI GRID" raster data format) later provided the code base for ArcView 3.x Spatial Analyst and ArcGIS Spatial Analyst.

ArcInfo

ESRI underwent a major change in its GIS product family when it released

8.0 late in 1999. With this release, ARC/INFO was discontinued and its code base largely frozen.

was a multi-scale architecture, with the Desktop product released at three licensing levels: ArcView; ArcEditor; and ArcInfo. The ArcInfo license is billed by ESRI as "Professional GIS", allowing users the most flexibility and control in "all aspects of data building, modeling, analysis, and map display". ArcInfo Desktop continued to be shipped with the older command-line software, now named "ArcInfo Workstation"—with access to coverage processing tools provided through the ArcGIS ''Coverage toolbox.'' Most ArcInfo Workstation functionality missing from ArcInfo Desktop at the 8.0 release was gradually implemented within the ArcGIS geoprocessing framework, and was finally completed with the release of ArcGIS 10.0 in 2011.

Final release and deprecation

ESRI released ArcInfo Workstation 10.0 (along with ArcGIS 10.0) in late 2010. This final release supported Windows ( XP, Vista, Win 7, Server

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

) and Solaris 10 ( SPARC). In 2012, Esri deprecated the use of the term ArcInfo as a licensing option for ArcGIS. The most advanced license for ArcGIS Desktop is now known as "ArcGIS Advanced".Which ArcGIS for Desktop Software Is Right for You? Retrieved fro
esri.com

References

External links

ArcInfo (wiki.gis.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arcinfo Esri software