[Biojava-dev] [Biojava-l] Suggestion for porting GHMM library

Hannes Brandstätter-Müller biojava at hannes.oib.com
Mon Apr 2 03:54:19 UTC 2012


Still, HMMER has that GPL license problem. Has anyone contacted them
for an exemption?

Hannes

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 05:30, Scooter Willis <HWillis at scripps.edu> wrote:
> I think HMMER implementation should be viewed as the source code of
> interest. When they went from HMMER2 to HMMER3 significant changes in what
> answer you get.
>
> On 4/1/12 8:15 PM, "Andreas Prlic" <andreas at sdsc.edu> wrote:
>
>>That could work in terms of license and would be an interesting
>>feature to have. I am still slightly concerned that the scale of the
>>project might be too big and it might be difficult to accomplish this
>>during the limited time of the project.
>>
>>Andreas
>>
>>On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 2:32 PM, Dhruv Sharma <sharma.dhrv at gmail.com>
>>wrote:
>>> Hi Andreas,
>>>
>>> In response to our last discussion, I would like to suggest porting
>>>General
>>> Hidden Markov Model (GHMM) library (http://ghmm.org/) from C to Java.
>>>
>>> The library is licensed under LGPL and is currently available as RC1
>>> version. The code is not very big and it is very much possible to port
>>>100%
>>> code to Java which would make it not only efficient in comparison to
>>>use of
>>> converters or JNI but also make it platform independent.
>>>
>>> Would it be possible to add this library to BioJava?
>>>
>>> If yes, I would surely like to work on it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 11:24 PM, Andreas Prlic <andreas at sdsc.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Dhruv,
>>>>
>>>> We are quite flexible regarding the projects and what we are really
>>>> looking for are sound projects  and motivated students. As such our
>>>> project suggestions are quite open. We will interact with accepted
>>>> students from remote, so a certain degree of self-sufficiency will be
>>>> required from the side of the student.
>>>>
>>>> If you already see tons of problems coming up during your initial
>>>> assessment of the project, perhaps focus your proposal on something
>>>> smaller and more achievable. There are quite a number of interesting
>>>> algorithms out there and it does not have to be one of the ones
>>>> suggested by us.
>>>>
>>>> Andreas
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 1:46 PM, Dhruv Sharma <sharma.dhrv at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> > Hi,
>>>> >
>>>> > I am Dhruv Sharma, a senior undergraduate student pursuing
>>>>B.E.(Hons.)
>>>> > Computer Science at BITS, Pilani, India.
>>>> >
>>>> > I am very much interested in 'porting BLAST algorithm to Java' as a
>>>>GSoC
>>>> > 2012 project. I am proficient and primarily work using Java and C.
>>>>Also,
>>>> > I
>>>> > have past experience of working in C++ before migrating to Java.
>>>> > However, I
>>>> > am new to GSoC and haven't used version control in the past.
>>>> >
>>>> > My recent project was based on developing a web application in Java
>>>>for
>>>> > posting data to remote CS-BLAST web
>>>> > service<http://toolkit.tuebingen.mpg.de/cs_blast/> with
>>>> > FASTA sequence, parse and auto-filter its results using the release
>>>>date
>>>> > from RCSB PDB <http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/home/home.do> and download the
>>>> > PDB
>>>> > files.
>>>> >
>>>> > Since, the project aims at converting the legacy C/C++ code to Java,
>>>> > already suggested approaches on the Bio-Java page and my observations
>>>> > are:-
>>>> >
>>>> > 1)  Using C++ to Java converters for 100% conversion. I have tried
>>>> > converting the ncbi-blast-2.2.26 source code using a few freely
>>>> > available
>>>> > converters but all of them either crashed or failed to convert even
>>>> > after I
>>>> > resolved certain header file dependency issues that emerged. Most
>>>> > failures
>>>> > occurred at function calls to non-standard C++ libraries.
>>>> >
>>>> > 2)  Using JNI as an alternative solution. JNI programming would be a
>>>> > tedious task and would anyway require understanding of the purpose of
>>>> > underlying C++ code. Hence,has little advantage over rewriting the
>>>> > equivalent Java code. A significant advantage can be seen when there
>>>>is
>>>> > no
>>>> > efficient Java alternative of the C++ code. However, platform
>>>>dependence
>>>> > would still exist.
>>>> >
>>>> > According to my understanding of the problem, a hybrid approach can
>>>>be
>>>> > taken up which includes using code converters for simpler files,
>>>>manual
>>>> > coding for tricky areas and using JNI for typical C++ code involving
>>>> > non-standard libraries. But, I am still not clear about my exact
>>>>course
>>>> > of
>>>> > action.
>>>> >
>>>> > Can you please tell me if my analysis of the problem is correct?
>>>>Please
>>>> > also comment on the feasibility of my suggested approach and please
>>>>make
>>>> > any suggestions as they would help me in improving my application
>>>>draft
>>>> > that I would soon be sharing for review.
>>>> >
>>>> > As BLAST is a collection of programs, so, keeping in mind the length
>>>>of
>>>> > code to be ported, can we work on certain selectively critical
>>>>programs
>>>> > in
>>>> > it from the GSoC's perspective?
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > Thanks.
>>>> >
>>>> > --
>>>> > *Dhruv Sharma*
>>>> > *Student
>>>> > B.E.(Hons.) Computer Science
>>>> > BITS, Pilani
>>>> > *
>>>> > *India*
>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>> > Biojava-l mailing list  -  Biojava-l at lists.open-bio.org
>>>> > http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biojava-l
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dhruv Sharma
>>> Student
>>> B.E.(Hons.) Computer Science
>>> BITS, Pilani
>>> India
>>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Biojava-l mailing list  -  Biojava-l at lists.open-bio.org
>>http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biojava-l
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Biojava-l mailing list  -  Biojava-l at lists.open-bio.org
> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biojava-l




More information about the biojava-dev mailing list