Python Included In ArcGIS 9

Party_Pack writes "ESRI, the makers of the GIS (Geographic Information System) Arc/INFO (as well as ArcView) and its more modern COM based successor ArcGIS are once again, in the just released ArcGIS 9, giving their users the choice of a fully featured scripting language rather than just the hideously complex ArcObjects/full programming language model they currently offer. Interestingly they have chosen to move away from their tradition of proprietary languages such as AML and Avenue and use Python. This is great news for both ArcGIS users and the Python community, as ESRI will hopefully feed any development work back into the community."

Comments

Experience shows otherwise

[shachart]

From my experience of programming against ESRI, I seriously doubt the company will contribute anything back to the community. For instance, in a project I once worked on, we developed custom renderers (i.e. custom icons to be displayed on maps etc.), and back then it was pretty much unsupported. The only way we could get support for this was to contribute our custom renderer to ESRI. Did we get any real support from them? no. But our framwork eventually became ArcGIS version 6's renderer hierarchy templates.

They have a reputation for not contributing anything back. User, beware.

Re:Experience shows otherwise

[CodeMonkey4Hire]

And there customer service model is terrible. I am supposed to pay them money to report bugs to them, even if I don't want support! There is no free bug-reporting. They act like you're [or your problems] not important unless you are throwing even more money at them (they're licenses already cost a painfully large amount).

I ended up sending my bug in through some email I found on their website (I wonder if it made it to the developers or the trash bin). It is extremely painful to work around it and I imagine that it would be an easy fix, so I am very interested in seeing if the fix made it to v9. I wouldn't bet on it though.

Actual Relevant Python Quote From The Site

[osewa77]

"Because geoprocessing often involves processing many datasets or datasets with many records, geoprocessing tasks typically are repetitive and good candidates for automation. Any scripting language with a COM interpreter, such as Python, JScript, or VBScript, can be used to write scripts that execute ArcGIS Desktop 9 geoprocessing tools and automate tasks. Because these scripting languages are not proprietary, many resources for learning them are available." Source
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