How to connect Manifold System 8.0 to PostGIS

In a class I am currently taking, we are evaluating three spatial databases, PostGIS, Microsoft SQL Server Spatial 2008, and Oracle Spatial. We are roughly halfway into the course and are now fiddling around with loading data different ways into the database. Manifold System 8, a full featured GIS can connect to each one of these databases but not without a little tweaking. Credit to my classmate Kevin Ross and my professor Art Lembo for doing most of the work on getting this running.

* This process is using PostGIS 1.3.2 (w/ Postgres 8.3), Manifold System 8.0.4.2836 Ultimate Edition, Windows XP Professional

• Right click on My Computer and select the Advanced Tab. Select Environmental Variables
• Scroll down the System Variable list and select the Path variable and click Edit.
  
• In the Variable value, enter the path to the PostgreSQL binaries at the end of the other paths. On my machine it is C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.3\bin, but yours may be different
• Restart your computer
• Start Manifold and select Tools > Database Console
• Click the "..." button, then select the "Add Data Source" button (looks like a star)
  
• In the Connect To pop up window, select the Files of Type drop down and select "PostgreSQL Data Sources()"
• The new window that pops up should have something like: Server: localhost, User name: postgres, Password: password, Database: spatialdatabase

That's it! More information will hopefully follow on PostGIS and how to set it up to this point.