[Open-bio-l] Toolkits and the new eutils policies

[Peter]

On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 2:10 AM, Chris Fields <cjfields at illinois.edu> wrote:
>
> On Mar 25, 2010, at 5:39 PM, Peter wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 7:59 PM, Ewan Birney <birney at ebi.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>> At the very least teh default should be "BioPerl Toolkit
>>> Placeholder For Non Registered Client" so that NCBI know
>>> precisely that the end programmer has not put something in
>>> there sensibly.
>>
>> No, that's just silly IMHO. Using "BioPerl" on its own serves just
>> the same purpose (indeed, the NCBI will be used to this from
>> existing users and all versions of BioPerl to date), The extra
>> long version doesn't add any useful information and more
>> importantly makes the URLs much longer which can be a
>> real issue because long URLs can break (e.g. if going via
>> a proxy).
>
> I don't think this is meant literally, just the general idea that
> setting it to a specific value indicates the user in question
> didn't reset it.
>

That makes more sense ;)

>>> And there should be a loud warning. I think it's fine to actually
>>> throw an exception. If someone is running a one off script, then they
>>> made the function call and can modify it. If someone's developing
>>> something more serious then they've got the time to think it through.
>>>
>>> I see little benefit in letting a default happen with just a warning.
>>
>> Making the email and/or tool mandatory vs throwing an
>> exception just an implementation detail.
>>
>> I think the issue is should BioPerl etc treat the email and
>> tool as optional, optional with a warning, or mandatory.
>> Note the NCBI does not seem to be making them
>> mandatory (for now).
>>
>> Peter
>
>
> It is listed as a user requirement here, has been for a long
> while actually:
>
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/eutils_help.html#UserSystemRequirements
>
> It just hasn't been enforced.  The new rule, as I understand
> it, is they will likely start enforcing it.

So is our status quo fine?

email - left out by default but with a warning
tool - set to BioPerl (or similar) by default

Peter