[Pipet Devel] python data structure

[J.W. Bizzaro]

Konrad Hinsen wrote:
> I don't see what you refer to. Python's file handling works much like
> C's stdio library; you can read arbitrary parts out of a file. There
> are also database interfaces (dbm and variants), which make it easy to
> store data in large files, but these are special-format files that are
> hardly useable with general programs like editors.
> 

You'll have to pardon my ignorance.  I am too used to manipulating text files in
Pascal.  (Don't laugh.)


> Example: suppose we use strings for nucleotide sequences now, and then
> find out next year that we must be able to treat sequences that are
> longer than available memory. Then we'll just write a small C module
> that implements a special "nucleotide sequence" type. This can look
> like a drop-in replacement for strings to Python, and all that will
> have to be changed in the Python code is the place where nucleotide
> sequence types are created. There are some advantages to a language
> without static type checking!
> 

...and this "nucleotide sequence" type will work straight from a file rather
than memory.


Jeff
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J.W. Bizzaro                  Phone: 617-552-3905
Boston College                mailto:bizzaro at bc.edu
Department of Chemistry       http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Chem/Bizzaro/
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