MakeMaker, OMG

[Steve A. Chervitz]

Did everyone see the recent article about MakeMaker in the latest TPJ 
(issue #7, Fall 1997)? It could prove helpful as we prepare to distribute 
Bio::PreSeq and Bio::UnivAln. Shall we set a target date for distribution?

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A new OMG domain special interest group (DSIG) has been established for  
the Lifesciences:

http://lsr.ebi.ac.uk/

The OMG is a non-profit consortium of numerous biotech comanies and 
university groups, so the standards they adopt could have wide-ranging 
impact on the future development and operation of bioinformatics 
software.  

The goal of this new DSIG is to improve communication and 
interoperability among object-oriented computational resources in life 
sciences research by establishing widely available interface 
specifications. The OMG promotes CORBA/IIOP as the key technology for 
achieving this goal. They have issued an RFI for information on 
architectures, interoperability, object and data models, interfaces, 
existing systems, standards, legal issues, and their priorities. 

I think our collective experience in designing Perl bio-objects would be 
of value to this effort. Perhaps we can respond to the RFI as a group? 
The deadline for response to the RFI is 10 Nov 1997. 

Our response could include:

  * Key bio-objects we have implemented or plan to implement
  * Basic object functionality and relationships among objects
  * Pointers to POD documentation for relevant Perl modules
  * Contact information and web sites we've developed

What do people think?

SteveC