Re: New Year's Resolution - MID/MID World Domination!(?)

[Warren Vick, Europa Technologies Ltd.]

Sam Korne ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote;

> The information needed to produce a MIF/MID2Tab is available 
> from MI in the form of a DDK (or used to be).  Some of us MI-Lers have it.  I 
> don't know if such a convertor would violate the license agreement.  I 
> think we need

The MapInfo DLL which give API based access to MapInfo TAB set files is called MFAL - 
MapInfo 
File Access Library. It does the job but has some very rough edges (in the version I 
used anyway). 
The inability to delete some or more rows from a table is incredible. 

MapInfo is very retentive with the library. Like an MI run-time, a case has to be 
presented to 
MapInfo to use it. Prices don't seem to be constant either.

Do MapInfo users really need a free-standing MIF/MID to TAB translator? It seems to me 
that 
enhancements to the existing import feature (like batch, better error handling, etc.) 
would be 
better. Of course those who need to build data dynamically outside MapInfo control are 
still going 
to need direct access or indirect access through an API.

I find todays post from Blue Marble Graphics very interesting. Also of note is 
Intergraphs support 
for TABs in the latest GeoMedia product. Like Autodesk World, this product is marketed 
as being a 
sort of "universal GIS client", able to use data of various foreign/domestic forms. I 
asked an 
Intergraph salesperson about it recently and he said that he didn't think Intergraph 
licensed MFAL. 
Apparently Intergraph and MapInfo had a relationship in the past. Maybe information 
was gleaned 
from the period or reverse engineered from scratch.

Regards,
Warren Vick
Europa Technologies Ltd, U.K.
www.europa-tech.com
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