On 08/07/2013 01:51 PM, James Stroud wrote:
In the long term, the MM structure community should perhaps get its inspiration
from SQL
For this to work, a particular interface must monopolize access to
structural data. Then maintainers of that victorious interface could
change the underlying format whichever way they want while supplying the
never ending stream of useful features. And all other programs would be
just frontends to the interface. As long as data format remains easily
readable and there is more than one person willing to fiddle with code,
persistence or at the very least backward compatibility of the data
format will remain a (minor to me) issue. It is also important that it
is much easier to write a pdb parser in your favourite language than to
implement general purpose relational database management system.
For full disclosure, I personally do not share the apocalyptic feeling
about transition to mmCIF.
Cheers,
Ed.
--
Oh, suddenly throwing a giraffe into a volcano to make water is crazy?
Julian, King of Lemurs
