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I've been asked for information from a number of people, enough to
write a short, quick review of _TIGER to MapInfo Translator (TMT) 5.3_
 
TMT is a product of:
 
International Computer Works, Inc.
P.O. Box 16232
Tampa, FL 33687-6232
 
(813) 988-0434
 
I paid $745.00 for it last fall.
 
Last fall I was getting a lot of pressure to get TIGER files out to a
number of people on campus.  At the University of Connecticut most
high-end GIS folks user Workstation ArcInfo or ArcCAD with one (that I
know of) Intergraph.  Social scientist, economists and business types
use MapInfo with a few geographers using TransCAD.  I had two licensed
copies of MapInfo and with the idea of building a virtual map library
collection, decided to go with MapInfo and ArcInfo data.  I called
MapInfo and finally got someone who was willing to give me the name of
a third party vendor who converted TIGER data, such as it is.  TMT was
the suggested vendor.  I was most intent on providing public domain
material.  Since the Fall (!) the School of Business has bought 5 seats
of MapInfo for DOS.  This reflects the use of spatial information on
1st generation machines... generally word processors.  I think of it
as entre by the next group of spatial data users.
 
The people at ICW, inc. are very helpful.  I did have some problems
setting it up.  I wanted to set it up on the network, probably because
I have it and because I have a large junk drive that I use to process.
I finally was only able to run the program off my C: drive.  I expect
it has to do with read/write restrictions and my ignorance of of
Novell... but I'm learning.
 
Calling up the TMT program, brings you to a menued selection of the
TIGER files and various coverages.  Basically you can select, or
deselect whatever data is represented in TIGER.  You can choose pen
width, line type and color.  You can create MIF/MID files for MapInfo
for Windows and MMI/MBI for MapInfo for DOS.  Connecticut counties are
moderately large.  I have to pass through twice for each format.  The
primary reason for the multiple pass through are the roads and hydro
coverages, both tend to be large files and my 8 Mb RAM is not
enough... it's never enough.
 
After TMT processed the files, they still need to be converted from
thier ASCII format to proprietary format.  That conversion is done
with the MapInfo utilities and fairly complex suite of batch jobs.  We
are in the process of looking at some batch solutions for MapInfo
Windows.
 
MapInfo has something called ArcLink which converts Arc E00 format to
MIF/MID.  Presumably it also does "visa-versa"  I've begun to play
around with it.  The v-v is a macro (SML) which runs in the PCArcInfo
program.  It is fairly buggy.  I assume the ArcLink from Arc => MIF
works... maybe I shouldn't.
 
Hope this gives you something to make some decisions on.  I will be
getting some FTP software mounted on my server next week so you might
be able to download files and check them out later this month.
 
Patrick McGlamery
Map Librarian
Homer Babbidge Library
Univ. of Connecticut
Storrs, Ct
(203) 486-4589
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