Jeff,
Just to be honest, Mapinfo native file format isn't quite that complicated
you suggested. It is very straight forward and beatiful structure. I
understand that you got a product to sell, but isn't that like making money
on someones 'intellectual property'.
A year ago I spend a weeked on terrible backache and instead of working on
crossword puzzles I was able to figure it out the main parts completely.
Basicly I'm happy to share my notes on format, if you guys find it useful.
If it isn't illegal or anything, personaly I would find it handy in
Mapinfo-L archive.
Any thoughts, suggestions? I'm sure Mapinfo people have some opinion on
that too?
Regards,
Anssi
-----Alkuperainen viesti-----
Lahettaja: Jeff Cole [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Lahetetty: 16. maaliskuuta 2000 22:44
Vastaanottaja: MAPINFO-L
Aihe: re[2]: MI mif2tab.exe ?
Bill,
As you may know, Blue Marble has completely figured out the native TAB file
format. Our TAB Reader (a COM Library) product reads native MapInfo TAB
files directly. More info is at
http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products.asp?id=15.
To anyone who wishes to engineer the format, good luck to you and have fun!
It took one of our best engineers several hundred hours to do it, with
fairly significant pain. Our effort was completed with full knowledge of
MapInfo. They were very supportive of the effort (especially when they
discovered that the Blue Marble TAB file specification document was perhaps
more comprehensive than theirs) as their intention was never to support
their MFAL solution as a "product". They have referred many TAB Reader
customers directly to us.
At this time, paying customers are not lining up for a TAB create/write
tool, most are looking to support reading the TAB format directly in their
applications. Our guess is that the don't need the complete functionality
of a mapping component. Blue Marble could surely support the create/write
of TAB files within our TAB library if we could justify it. Anyone out
there - let us know if your interested.
Jeff
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> I asked once. A few years ago the answer was no. I hear that a
>> licensed DLL kit does exist, but it's not open to the general
>> public, and it comes with a whopper price tag (naturally).
>> However, I don't believe anyone can copyright a data format
>> anyway (or ESRI, MapInfo, AutoDesk, and Integraph would have sued
>> each other to death already), so if you can figure it out you
>> could probably use it without any problems. Good luck figuring it
>> out. Only a few illuminati know how, and they all think the
>> others haven't got it right yet. I have noticed that interest in
>> this format has really increased in the last few months, so I
>> guess the genie is just about out of the bottle anyway.
>> Just out of curiousity, if you could buy it, what would people be
>> willing to pay for a DLL or ActiveX tool that would provide the
>> ability to create and direct read/write access to MapInfo TAB
>> files?
>> - Bill Thoen
>> Neil Havermale wrote:
>> >
>> > There is a better answer to all of this. I would suggest you
contact
>> > MapInfo's Developer Services and ask about access to TAB....
>> >
>> > MidNight
>> > 3/16/00
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>> > Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 12:40 PM
>> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> > Subject: Re: MI mif2tab.exe ?
>> >
>> > Mats Elfstrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> > "On 01/04/99, the Midnight Mapper asked: Anyone out there
interested in
>> > building a shareware MIF2TAB.exe?"
>> >
>> > And Mats replied:
>> > Well, I just discovered that someone has.
>> > Visit http://pages.infinit.net/danmo/e00/index-mitab.html for
downloads
>> and
>> >
>> > more information. I cannot vouch for the functionality of this
stuff,
>> but
>> > it
>> > passed a simple back and forth conversion test.
>> > ## end of quoted material ##
>> >
>> > I downloaded the material Mats discovered and recompiled it to
produce a
>> > Windows DLL using Borland C++ Builder 4. (I just can't stand having
to
>> work
>> > in a DOS command line!) Here is my "take" on the software:
>> >
>> > 1. The code is a very good start, but it is unfinished in several
>> respects.
>> > For example, the functions it provides are "read/create" rather
than
>> > "read/write." Thus you can create a TAB file from a MIF/MID, but
you
>> can't
>> > open a TAB and add new objects to it. You (apparently) have to
convert
>> the
>> > TAB to a MIF/MID using the Tab2Mif, delete and/or add updated
objects
>> (in
>> > MIF/MID format), then create the updated TAB using Mif2Tab.
>> >
>> > 2. The software (apparently) doesn't do any "intelligent" grouping
of
>> > objects. Thus the objects appearing together in an object block (a
type
>> 2
>> > record) are not contained in some minimal bounding rectangle (as
they
>> are in
>> >
>> > a TAB built by MapInfo itself).
>> >
>> > 3. The conversion from external floating point coordinates to
internal
>> > integer format is based on the minimum bounding rectangle of the
>> contained
>> > data rather than limits that allow arbitrary coordinates anywhere
on the
>> > ellipsoid. Thus, if you use MapInfo to update a TAB created by
MITAB you
>> > will
>> > find that no data can be added outside the bounding rectangle of
the
>> > original
>> > data. (Fortunately, fixing this problem in MITAB is rather simple.)
>> >
>> > However, given these reservations, I believe this is an excellent
start
>> > toward an "open" set of software for working with data in Mapinfo
>> "native"
>> > format. And, of course, just having a Mif2Tab and Tab2Mif
capability
>> (albeit
>> >
>> > experimental) is a big step forward in itself.
>> >
>> > Robert Edwards
>> > The MapTools Company
>> >
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