This project is devoted to the breaking down of barriers to the acceptance of MapBasic applications for MapInfo on a worldwide basis. The main obstacle to worldwide dissemination of applications is the language of use, that is the language in which the menus, dialogs, other messages and output are displayed. The prime objective of this site is to promote solutions that will reduce or eliminate that barrier, and this particular bent gives to this site its main mission and banner: to promote the MULTI LINGUAL COMPATIBILITY of MB applications.
The cost of acquiring some applications may also be perceived as a barrier. There is no intention in this project to influence in anyway pricing policies of application writers; there will be no attempt to change the choices they make in the licensing of their products; there will not be either any discriminatory treatment based on the nature of such licensing status. By offering practical solutions to the language of use question, it is expected that applications in any licensing status (freeware, shareware or commercial) will find greater acceptance and that a larger market will help bringing costs down for the $ applications, and quality up for all of them.
Also perceived as a potential barrier is the variety of MI platforms. At the beginning, this project will deal essentially with the Windows based MapInfo that is by far the dominant platform; this narrowing down of its scope will not prevent considering other platforms in the future if new resources manifest themselves . But within that generic envelop, MI exists in several variations (from version 3 to version 6, there are 5 significant development steps) with limited backward compatibility.
Started as a special chapter within the MLC project, this topic has grown to the point of being presented as a complete project named APPLICATION BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY. And this site will consider any other subject related to the main objective that any member of the MapInfo community will offer for consideration.
This project will become host to 'documents' in many forms, main stream statements, discussion papers, inventory of questions, resource files... It will provide in the near future an entry to discussion threads and links to pertinent resources and documentation. Once the initial structure and contents are set up, the site masters will not be able to do more than the upkeep of the site if the members of the MI community do not see to its development. Only the participation of the largest number will keep it alive and growing. The contributions can take many forms and none will be refused a priori. Close contacts with the site masters will nurture that enterprise for the benefit of all.