ArcInfo

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.

History

ARC/INFO

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").

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.