[Biopython-dev] library to create gel image

[Jose Blanca]

On Friday 27 February 2009 11:45:59 Peter wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Jose Blanca <jblanca at btc.upv.es> wrote:
> That's much clearer - is the Genographer software showing the actual
> image (zoomed as required, with the colours adjusted as required), or
> an artificial recreation?
Is an artificial recreation, the same as I'm trying to accomplish. I just want 
more resolution an automated process (genographer is a GUI application)

> Are you trying to create this figure for illustrative purposes only?
> I mean would a slightly cartoon like recreation be fine, or are you
> trying to make it as realistic as possible?
I want to analyze it.

> I see you are having to reverse engineer their file format.  I guess
> other people have tried this in the past so there may be more clues
> out on the internet.  Have you tried emailing the company to see if
> they would publish the file format specifications (unlikely I fear,
> but worth asking).
Fortunately the ABIF was reverse enginered by people more clever than me. And 
a couple of years ago Applied published an specification.
http://bioinf.comav.upv.es/svn/gelify/gelifyfsa/src/doc/ABIF_File_Format.pdf
You can't beleive everything in that specification, but it is a good start. 
Reading an abif file is not a problem, drawing the gel with as little coding 
as possible is another thing.
Regards,

Jose Blanca