This is in regards to a question about an archaeological mapping software program called MapInfo. If people are interested I can send along the rest of the info as well. Anita Cohen-Williams; Reference Services; Hayden Library Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 PHONE: (602) 965-4579 FAX: (602) 965-9169 INTERNET: [log in to unmask] Owner: HISTARCH *** Forwarding note from IANJOHNS--CMSNAMES 07/07/94 21:04 *** Return-Path: <@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU:[log in to unmask]> Received: from ASUACAD (NJE origin SMTP@ASUACAD) by ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 4927; Thu, 7 Jul 1994 21:04:26 -0700 Received: from plato.arts.su.oz.au by ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP; Thu, 07 Jul 94 21:04:23 MST Received: by plato.arts.su.OZ.AU with UUCP id <2059>; Fri, 8 Jul 1994 14:05:38 +1000 Received: from ANTIQUITY (QM 2.6 v1 (AU)) by mailbox.arts.su.oz.au (UMCP\QM 2.1.3) id AA22365; Fri, 8 Jul 1994 14:05:55 +1000 Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Organization: Faculty of Arts, The University of Sydney, AUSTRALIA To: [log in to unmask] (Cohen-Williams) From: [log in to unmask] (Ian Johnson) Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 13:59:37 +1000 Subject: Re: >Software Program (1/2) Reply to: RE>>Software Program Anita MapInfo is a vector mapping program for Windows, Mac & I think Unix, targetted at business and government users e.g. census data, sales, police etc. It's pretty good at linking a database table or tables (using SQL type queries) with graphic (map) data, and displaying results as publication quality maps (_real_ cartographers don't think it's as good as a good drawing package, but the database linkage and projection capabilities far outweigh this for me - I can produce better stuff than my imagination allows). It reads in data quite well, from DBase, 1-2-3 or Ascii files, once you've worked out how to do it, and allows non-topological digitisation with automatic projection conversion. Reads DXF for map data, and I've written conversions for ArcInfo, Idrisi. Also have a program and routines for getting dfata out of Digitial Chart of the World CD-ROMS (very good source of cheap - $300 - data for the world at 1:1M scale). I've just written an archaeologist's guide to MapInfo, which I have still to polish up but user feedback has been quite positive. Between that and the software I've written, it makes it quite usable. Competent students pick it up with only an occasional helping hand, although getting the best out of it requires a bit of lateral thinking and experience. MapInfo is marketed by MapInfo Corp. Troy, Illinois, and seems to be at least one of the market leaders in the desktop mapping market and expanding rapidly. MapInfo Australia has gone from half a dozen employees a couple of years back to 40 or 50, with about 50 VARs around Australia. The latest version just released allows a raster backdrop to a vector map. Major updates come out about annually. Dean Snow (SUNY Albany) has a paper on it in _Methods in the Mountains_ (UISPP Commission IV conference last year), which has just been printed and which will be announced through Arch-L as soon as I get around to mailing the info. I'll attach a copy of the TOC. This should give you a general picture, but let me know if you have more specific questions. Ian