[Biopython-dev] Newick Parser

[Nigel Delaney]

You mean a Unicode byte order mark (BOM)?

 

Yep.

 

Does it even make sense to allow non-ASCII in Newick format?

 

I think that's a matter of opinion.  The specs I found discussed how to
parse the string, but not how to encode the string.  

 

The advantages I can see are allowing people to use the extended characters
for node/tip label names, and being robust if different
text-editors/programs muck with the files (which I would suspect are usually
ASCII).

 

The disadvantage is that it's another case to handle in code, so could just
be ignored or throw an exception.

 

Not sure what the preferred choice for biopython would be.