Displaying adjacent SHP files in MapServer? (converting from MapInfo)

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Hi,

I'm a MapServer newbie, and I'm to show a GIS map of a country using 
MapServer.

The source is MapInfo, and the country's map is actually made of several 
adjacent .TAB files (each .TAB file consists a Province) instead of  a single 
TAB file.

I'm going to convert those MapInfo files into ESRI SHP files.

My question is:

(1) Can MapServer display several adjacent SHP files as a single map, like what 
MapInfo does with those multiple TAB files?

(2) Is it difficult or complex to do the #1 above? Is it time-consuming? 
Development time is my concern here, especially since I'm not going to display 
every details of the original MapInfo maps --only those relevant to public 
information needs.

(3) Will it be better to combine those multiple MapInfo TAB files into a single 
large TAB file, and then convert it to SHP file to be displayed by MapServer?

Thanks,
-Kresh