[BioPython] FSSP module: any comments?

Jeffrey Chang jchang@SMI.Stanford.EDU
Tue, 05 Jun 2001 12:06:13 -0700


> In the BM era (Before Martel), or actually in the BIKHTWDP era (before I
> knew how to write a decent parser), I wrote a module which parses FSSP
> files.

> Good thing about it: it appears to be working.
> 
> Bad thing: not in Martel, doesn't even look like a decent parser. I do it
> all with regexps, but the FSSP format is so well-defined and robust, that
> I haven't crashed yet.
> 
> Do we need it? Would anyone like to comment?

So in general, we want code that's:
- in python (or C with python wrapper is OK)
- related to bioinformatics
- likely to be useful to others (so must be general)
- fills missing functionality or is clearly better than current solutions
- doesn't break API (not so important now, more important later)
- supported

Your FSSP code meets the first 5, so we want it as long as you're willing,
or can find some else, to maintain it!  :)

Jeff