MBAS is a suite of applications for use in macro biological research. Essentially, if you are a biologist, and work on something visible with the un-aided eye, MBAS might be what your looking for. Visit the sourcforge project page at: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/mbas/
Current practice in the field involves abundant use of spreadsheets, manual data manipulation, and partially computer aided computations. This approach has several advantages:
Drawbacks to this approach include:
MBAS seeks to improve the situation by providing a Relational Database approach. For this cost, MBAS delivers a set of tools abstracting interaction with the backing Database Management System. The key components are reports, data entry, and project set-up. The major drawbacks are increased complexity of the solution and higher skill level of end-user.
MBAS relies heavily on XML for communication amongst it's component programs, one of the major results of this is an XML DTD for sharing information with other researchers, reliably and automatically.
MBAS is in early stage development. Current focus is on facilitating Dr. Paul Stone's turtle research. This minimal implementation will answer questions about cross-platform strategy and which technologies will be used. There is a workable database definition and the front end for basic turtle data entry is complete. Currently work on portability of key components and GUI cross-platform strategy is under heavy development.