Hi Flavio, Just to comment on your points :
> MapInfo is far easier to use and far more powerful when it comes to fiddeling around with data (capture of smple features and attributes) Ease of use is always a matter of choice and personal experience. Personally I think the SQL interface in MapInfo is horrible compared to the easy and intuitive QBE interface in ArcGIS (similar to that in Access). I compare this to the old Texas/HP calculator feud over "normal" arithmetic notation versus Reverse Polish Notation, the latter being the better imho. > MapInfo is way faster Is it? What benchmark tests are you referring to here? Besides, performance is often overrated imho, e.g. if you need to make 10 quick steps instead 1 slow to perform a given task. The user is often the slowest GIS component, making it unimportant which software is faster. > MapInfo has the better data format (see my other mail to Lars) Has it ? What objective argument leads you to that conclusion ? If you're referring to the ability of the TAB format to hold multiple topography, I find that to be mostly irrelevant, 1) since most use the tables for single-topography data anyway, and 2) most users are annoyed by the horrendeous old fashioned file system dependency compared to todays standards. And what other mail is that in particular, btw ?? > for relatively simple mapping it is fast and fine I agree. But that's not very helpful in a comparison, it's basically just a hear-say argument (= management factoid?). > way more integrated into the Windows world Is it ? Again, what objective argument leads you to that conclusion ? I find that MapInfo still holds a number of old-fashioned quirks, that Windows has left behind ages ago. MIPro is still mostly a Windows 95 look'n'feel application imho, in spite of some newer gui elements having been added later. > interoperability is better (opens directly many formats) You obviously haven't heard of Data Interoperability. MapInfo is WAY behind on this ball field ! And there's still a huge difference between "opening" and "converting", even though the conversions run under the hood. > MapInfo works with ASCII format (i.e. Workspaces and MIF/MID); I personally do not like these binary workspaces ... I agree - in princple, but to an average user it's completely irrelevant. And MIF/MID is an exchange format, not an internal format, and as such irrelevant in this case. Almost any software can generate and use ASCII based exchange data. What I personally dislike, is the consistent unstableness of the ASCII based workspace files when disk based changes occur. I would opt for a binary geodatabase any day. Having the opportunity to hand edit a cripled workspace file is not a fantastic feature, it's a buggy work-around ! Best regards / Med venlig hilsen Lars V. Nielsen GisPro ----- Original Message ----- From: "Flavio Hendry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Maggie Ma" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 8:07 AM Subject: Re: [MI-L] MapInfo and ArcGIS Comparison Hi Maggie I use both all the time, mainly MapInfo, why? - MapInfo is far easier to use and far more powerful when it comes to fiddeling around with data (capture of smple features and attributes) - MapInfo is way faster - MapInfo has the better data format (see my other mail to Lars) - for relatively simple mapping it is fast and fine - way more integrated into the Windows world - interoperability is better (opens directly many formats) - MapInfo works with ASCII format (i.e. Workspaces and MIF/MID); I personally do not like these binary workspaces ... ArcGIS 9.x (forget ArcView 3.x) comes into the game when: - you want better cartographic output: you can define your own line styles, pattern fills etc. and you can i.e. rotate layouts (very useful feature). this is in my opionion the major strength of ArcGIS over MapInfo - ArcGIS supports higher end editing (such as circular arcs, topology stuff); geodatabase needed (attention, see my mail to Lars ...) - you do a lot of raster analysis - you need "enterprise" stuff, such as corporate wide editing, however here we talk lot more money (ArcEDIT, ArcSDE, Oracle) Mit freundlichem Gruss / Best Regards Flavio Hendry ---------------------------------------------------------------- TYDAC NEWS http://www.tydac.ch/german/index.php?menu=News_actual ---------------------------------------------------------------- ############ Mit freundlichen Gruessen / Kind Regards ############ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ############ TYDAC AG - http://www.tydac.ch #### #### Geographic Information Solutions #### #### Luternauweg 12 -- CH-3006 Bern ############ Tel +41 (0)31 368 0180 - Fax +41 (0)31 368 1860 ---------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ MapInfo-L mailing list [email protected] http://www.directionsmag.com/mailman/listinfo/mapinfo-l _______________________________________________ MapInfo-L mailing list [email protected] http://www.directionsmag.com/mailman/listinfo/mapinfo-l
