>I'm not the world's biggest ESRI fan - if only because I dislike >monopolies and sometimes it seems as if ESRI is perceived as one - >but it seems to me that your gripe is not well founded nor very >professional. >
Obviously, I'm not thier biggest fan either. They are obviously the 800# gorilla here and they can do whatever they wish.
IMPORT71 maybe a great tool, makes no difference. My un-professional "gripe" is that public agencies are publishing public domain data in a propritary format. .E00 is only useful to folks who own ESRI licensed software - it is not a public format.
You, and other professionals, like the GIS Depot for example and the folks at public agencies that trash my flame mail, are so steeped in ESRI software that you can't even acknowledge the point that .E00 is a closed ESRI format. The common answer is - tough, buy ArcWhatever and shut up.
The subject of the orginal posts, IMPORT71, is a good example. What good is IMPORT71 to a non-ESRI GIS user? It converts one propritary ESRI format to another ESRI format. Sure, it allows those with $1,000+ ESRI products to utilize files from a $5,000+ ESRI product - great!
So my gripes are with those that are exepcting everyone to own ESRI licesnsed software if they want to utilized taxpayer developed data. And with the GIS professional that support posting of .E00 formatted of public domain data.
ESRI knows it has us by the throat. Unless the folks I flame, the one's spending million$ with ESRI, get it into there heads that they are doing a disservice to the public they aren't even going to ask ESRI to build them the tools to easily publish public domain data.
I'm sure .E00 is a great ESRI interchange format, and I wish you thousands more succesful excahnges of ESRI data from ESRI system to ESRI system. I just ask when you apply your professional GIS skills to systems designs for distributing public domain data you don't suggest .E00 is the format to use. That, IMHO, would not be professional.
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