[BioPython] biocorba progress

[Ewan Birney]

On Wed, 26 Apr 2000, Brad Chapman wrote:

> Hey, just wanted to keep you all up to date on the status of the 
> biopython-corba stuff. WRT the python client, I've been trying to keep 
> it up to date with the changes in the bioperl server, so right now it 
> is ready to run against the three servers available in 
> bioperl-corba-server. Unfortunately, it only works with one of 
> them (simpleseq.pl) :-< I know that the bioperl-corba-server module is 
> under heavy development/merging, so I didn't mess around with the 
> other two servers to figure out the problem. I just wanted to let the 
> bioperl guys know that you all can use the python client whenever you 
> are ready and then we can work on communication problems from both 
> ends :-) Everything is located in biopython cvs in the module 
> biopython-corba, and complete instructions are available in the README 
> (also now available in friendly html version :).


It would be great to get a decent set of other language test-cases. Jason
for me is the main person on this project, so when he says the servers are
ready, thats when we should hit them. Perhaps Jason can come up with what
he is going to look at first/rough time lines etc...

>     There is also a minimal server implementation based off of 
> Andrew's sequence code, and the start of a 'Biopython lookalike' 
> interface so that Biopython-corba calls will look like Biopython 
> calls. I hope that we'll be able to use this lookalike interface to 
> develop the sequence class structure on top of the corba stuff, giving 
> us flexibility to design a good interface without having to write the 
> underlying code. Cool stuff!
>     

Biopython lookalike == Interface based definitions. Interface based
definitions internally are a great move - it really provides the ability
to put very weird implementations to work with your code. It is the best
thing in the new bioperl stuff...