[BioPython] Biopython-corba 0.2 release

[Brad Chapman]

Hello all!

I have finished up python support for the Biocorba-0.2 interface (see
http://www.biocorba.org for more info on biocorba). This allows
interoperability with other Bio projects through a CORBA
interface. The biopython-corba code allows you to use this interface
with very little knowledge of CORBA, and makes it relatively painless
to set up a Biocorba server using standard Biopython objects. It is
available from the download page at:

http://biopython.org/Download/

Some of the major advances of this release over the last are:

* Support for the new Biocorba-0.2 IDL interfaces.

* Much improved code for accessing objects. It should be a lot easier
to use then in the last release.

* Lots of documentation available in both the Doc directory of the
release and from: 

http://biopython.org/wiki/html/BioPython/BiopythonCorba.html

* Support for creating all of the different kinds of Biocorba servers
using Biopython.

* Complete set of Bio-like interfaces that make using Biocorba
similar to using Biopython.


I would really like to hear any feedback people might have about
this. Things I'm especially interested in hearing about are:

* Is it easy to use? Do the interfaces make sense?  Does the
documentation make things clear?

* Is the Bio-like interface useful to people, or a waste of time? Do
people prefer just using the CORBA interface?

* Does this work on platforms other than UNIX? I included a windows
installer, but I have not yet had the guts to try and install omniORB
on windows and see how things work.


This is a preliminary release of the 0.2 code. Right now the other
projects haven't moved to support 0.2, but I'm hoping once we get code 
out there this will encourage the other projects :-). Once these are
released then I'll add Tests/Instructions for connecting with these
projects. There is also preliminary code for connecting with the EMBL
database through BioCorba, but this will probably not work as Alan
Robinson is still working on the implementation. 

So please enjoy and give me feedback so I can improve future
releases. Thanks for listening!

Brad