[Biopython-dev] NCBI Abuse activity with Biopython

[Michiel de Hoon]

> > We could make the rule that without an explicit value for this

> > parameter, the Bio.Entrez.e* functions return the parsed results.

> You suggestion to automatically do the parsing when XML format is
> requested would prevent the user from parsing the XML themselves (e.g.
> using SAX or DOM).Actually I was suggesting to do the parsing only if no format is requested, and to return a handle to XML if XML format is requested.

But from the current examples in the Bio.Entrez chapter in the tutorial, it appears that typically users will have to write some glue code anyway to make optimally use of Bio.Entrez for their purposes. In that case, I suppose that whether or not we return a handle or an object from the Bio.Entrez.e* functions makes little difference.

--Michiel.