| Developer(s) | Esri |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1982 |
| Stable release | 10 |
| Operating system | Windows, Solaris, AIX, Tru64 UNIX |
| Type | GIS |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | esri.com/software/arcgis/arcinfo/ |
ArcInfo (formerly called 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.[1]
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The first version of ARC/INFO was launched in 1982 on minicomputers, as ESRI claims, the very first modern GIS. The name refers to its architecture as a Geographic Information System composed of a) geographic input, processing, and output tools ("ARC") with b) a complementary, but separate database ("INFO")[2]
The early releases of ARC/INFO were a set of FORTRAN programs linked 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 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 ARC/INFO supported platforms.
As computing shifted to Unix and Windows, ESRI followed by launching ARC/INFO on both platforms. The development platform for ARC/INFO was moved to Sun Solaris at version 5.0, and to Windows at version 7.1.
A subset of ARC/INFO functionality was released as PC ARC/INFO for DOS in 1987[3] and released later for Windows using a dBase instead of Info file format and a 'Simple Macro Language' (SML).
ARC/INFO 6.0 added a major subsystem (GRID) for raster processing. The underlying raster processing software (and "ESRI GRID" raster data format) was adapted for use in ArcView 3.x Spatial Analyst and ArcGIS Spatial Analyst.
ESRI underwent a major change in its GIS product family when it released ArcGIS 8.0 late in 1999. With this release, ARC/INFO was discontinued and its code base largely frozen. ArcGIS 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"[4].
ArcInfo Desktop continued to be shipped with the older command-line software, now named "ArcInfo Workstation" -- with links to access some of its functionality from the ArcGIS Desktop interface. Most ArcInfo Workstation functionality missing from ArcInfo Desktop at the 8.0 release was implemented within the ArcGIS 9.x geoprocessing framework.
Many users who are familiar with ArcInfo Workstation still make use of it for its speed and large toolset, using it in conjunction with the GUI offered by ArcGIS. In addition, some users find that, despite certain limitations (especially database size), ArcInfo Workstation (lacking the overhead of a Windows COM-based application) can offer more efficient processing than the same functions implemented in ArcGIS.
ESRI announced in 2009 the release of ArcInfo Workstation 10 (along with ArcGIS 10) in late 2010. The software will support Windows (XP,7,Server 2003/2008) and Solaris 10 (SPARC).[5]
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