[Bioperl-l] Bio::SeqAnalysisParserI [was: Bio::Tools::HMMER refactoring]

[Hilmar Lapp]

Ewan Birney wrote:
> 
> In addition, this interface will not go easily into a corba
> /time-sliced/threaded framework.
> 
> Why not have
> 
>   Bio::SeqAnalysisParserFactoryI
> 
>   $parser = $factory->create_parser(-fh => \*FILE);
> 
>   Bio::SeqAnalyisParserI
> 
>   while( $next_feature = $parser->next_feature ) {
> 
>   }
> 
> same number of functions defined. Twice the number of interfaces, but
> these are the interfaces I would argue we want.
> 
> An implementation could implement ParserFactoryI and ParserI in the same
> module if so wished.
> 
> Whaddya reckon? Too complex for your taste hilmar?
> 

Well, Jason and I had such a layout in mind first, but the question was
how significant the performance hit might be in a CORBA context. A
likely situation is that you have less than 10 methods for which you
need parsers, and thousands of sequences, that is, thousands of inputs
for each parser. We thought that in a CORBA context creating 10 objects
instead of 10,000 does matter (in pure Perl you probably wouldn't notice
a difference), and that therefore we wanted to be able to reuse a
once-created parser object.

Of course you could let the parser implement the factory, too, and abuse
it as a 'reset', but IMHO this is abuse.

So, what I wanted to say, I guess both Jason and I are in principle
happy with a factory. Based on my experience with CORBA, however, there
is a performance issue, but my experience is somewhat not up-to-date,
and not that extensive, so it's up to you and Jason to make a decision
here.

	Hilmar
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Hilmar Lapp                                email: hlapp@gmx.net
GNF, San Diego, Ca. 92122                  phone: +1 858 812 1757
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