[Biopython] Biopython 1.51 beta released

[Peter]

Dear all,

A beta release for Biopython 1.51 is now available for download
and testing.

In the two months since Biopython 1.50 was released, we have
introduced support for writing features in GenBank files using
Bio.SeqIO, extended SeqIO~s support for the FASTQ format to
include files created by Illumina 1.3+, and added a new set of
application wrappers for alignment programs, and made
numerous tweaks and bug fixes.

All the new features have been tested by the dev team but it's
possible there are cases that we haven~t been able to foresee
and test, especially for the GenBank feature writer (as there
as just so many possible odd fuzzy feature locations).

Note that as previously announced, Biopython no longer supports
Python 2.3, and our deprecated parsing infrastructure (Martel
and Bio.Mindy) has been removed.

Source distributions and Windows installers are available from
the downloads page on the Biopython website.
http://biopython.org/wiki/Download

We are interested in getting feedback on the beta release as a
whole, but especially on the new features and the Biopython
Tutorial and Cookbook:
http://biopython.org/DIST/docs/tutorial/Tutorial.html
http://biopython.org/DIST/docs/tutorial/Tutorial.pdf

So, gather your courage, download the release, try it out and
let us know what works and what doesn~t through the mailing
lists (or bugzilla).

-Peter, on behalf of the Biopython developers

P.S. This news post is online at
http://news.open-bio.org/news/2009/06/biopython-151-beta-released/

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Thanks also to David Winter for coming up with the draft
release message.