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8 Please see the the `INSTALL` or `INSTALL.WIN` documents for installation
11 Note that these documents are gradually being migrated to a specific
12 http://readthedocs.org site.
16 BioPerl is a package of public domain Perl tools for computational molecular
19 Our website (http://bioperl.org/) provides an online resource of modules,
20 scripts, and web links for developers of Perl-based software for life science
25 BioPerl mailing list: bioperl-l@bioperl.org
27 There's quite a variety of tools available in BioPerl, and more are added all
28 the time. If the tool you're looking for isn't described in the documentation
29 please write us, it could be undocumented or in process.
31 * Project website : http://bioperl.org/
33 * Bug reports : https://github.com/bioperl/bioperl-live/issues
35 Please send us bugs, in particular about documentation which you think is
36 unclear or problems in installation. We are also very interested in functions
37 which don't work the way you think they do!
39 # The directory structure
41 The BioPerl directory structure is organized as follows:
43 * **`Bio/`** - BioPerl modules
45 * **`doc/`** - Documentation utilities
47 * **`examples/`** - Scripts demonstrating the many uses of BioPerl
49 * **`ide/`** - files for developing BioPerl using an IDE
51 * **`maintenance/`** - BioPerl housekeeping scripts
53 * **`models/`** - DIA drawing program generated OO UML for BioPerl classes
54 (these are quite out-of-date)
56 * **`scripts/`** - Useful production-quality scripts with POD documentation
58 * **`t/`** - Perl built-in tests, tests are divided into subdirectories
59 based on the specific classes being tested
61 * **`t/data/`** - Data files used for the tests, provides good example data
65 For documentation on BioPerl see the **HOWTO** documents and tutorials online at
68 Useful documentation in the form of example code can also be found in the
69 **`examples/`** and **`scripts/`** directories. The current collection includes
70 scripts that run BLAST, index flat files, parse PDB structure files, make
71 primers, retrieve ESTs based on tissue, align protein to nucleotide sequence,
72 run GENSCAN on multiple sequences, and much more! See `bioscripts.pod` for a
75 Individual `*.pm` modules have their own embedded POD documentation as well. A
76 complete set of hyperlinked POD, or module, documentation is available at
77 http://www.bioperl.org/.
79 Remember that '`perldoc`' is your friend. You can use it to read any file
80 containing POD formatted documentation without needing any type of translator
81 (e.g. '`perldoc Bio::SeqIO`').
83 If you used the Build.PL installation, and depending on your platform, you may
84 have documentation installed as man pages, which can be accessed in the usual
89 BioPerl releases are always available from the website at
90 http://www.bioperl.org/DIST or in CPAN. The latest code can be found at
91 https://github.com/bioperl.
93 * BioPerl currently uses a sematic numbering scheme to indicate stable release
94 series vs. development release series. A release number is a three digit
96 * The *first digit indicates the major release*, the idea being that all the
97 API calls in a major release are reasonably consistent.
98 * The *second number is the release series*. This is probably the most
99 important number, and represents added functionality that is
100 backwards-compatible.
101 * The *third number is the point or patch release* and represents mainly bug
102 fixes or additional code that doesn't add significant functionality to the
105 * From the **1.0 release until the 1.6 release**, even numbers (`1.0`, `1.2`, etc)
106 indicated stable releases. Stable releases were well tested and recommended
107 for most uses. Odd numbers (`1.1`, `1.3`, etc) were development releases which one
108 would only use if one were interested in the latest and greatest features. The
109 final number (e.g. `1.2.0`, `1.2.1`) is the bug fix release. The higher the number
110 the more bug fixes has been incorporated. In theory you can upgrade from one
111 bug fix release to the next with no changes to your own code (for production
112 cases, obviously check things out carefully before you switch over).
114 * The upcoming **1.7 release** will be the last release series to utilize the
115 alternating 'stable'/'developer' convention. Starting immediately after the
116 final 1.6 branch, we will start splitting BioPerl into several smaller
117 easier-to-manage distributions. These will have independent versions, all
118 likely starting with v1.7.0. **We do not anticipate major API changes in the
119 1.7.x release series*, merely that the code will be restructured in a way to
120 make maintenance more feasible. We anticipate retaining semantic versioning
121 until the **v2.x** release.
123 # Caveats and warnings
125 When you run the tests ("`./Build test`") some tests may issue warnings messages
126 or even fail. Sometimes this is because we didn't have anyone to test the test
127 system on the combination of your operating system, version of perl, and
128 associated libraries and other modules. Because BioPerl depends on several
129 outside libraries we may not be able to test every single combination so if
130 there are warnings you may find that the package is still perfectly useful.
132 If you install the bioperl-run system and run tests when you don't have the
133 program installed you'll get messages like '`program XXX not found, skipping
134 tests`'. That's okay, BioPerl is doing what it is supposed to do. If you wanted
135 to run the program you'd need to install it first.
137 Not all scripts in the `examples/` directory are correct and up-to-date. We need
138 volunteers to help maintain these so if you find they do not submit a bug report
139 to https://github.com/bioperl/bioperl-live/issues and consider helping out in
142 If you are confused about what modules are appropriate when you try and solve a
143 particular issue in bioinformatics we urge you to look at HOWTO documents first.
145 # A simple module summary
147 Here is a quick summary of many of the useful modules and how the toolkit is
150 All modules are in the **`Bio/`** namespace,
152 * **`Perl`** is for *new users*, and gives a functional interface to the main
153 parts of the package.
155 * **`Seq`** is for *Sequences* (protein and DNA).
156 * `Bio::PrimarySeq` is a plain sequence (sequence data + identifiers)
157 * `Bio::Seq` is a fancier `PrimarySeq`, in that it has annotation (via
158 `Bio::Annotation::Collection`) and sequence features (via `Bio::SeqFeatureI` objects, attached via
159 `Bio::FeatureHolderI`).
160 * `Bio::Seq::RichSeq` is all of the above, plus it has slots for extra information specific to GenBank/EMBL/SwissProt files.
161 * `Bio::Seq::LargeSeq` is for sequences which are too big for
164 * **`SeqIO`** is for *reading and writing Sequences*. It is a front end module
165 for separate driver modules supporting the different sequence formats
167 * **`SeqFeature`** represent *start/stop/strand-based localized annotations (features) of sequences*
168 * **`Bio::SeqFeature::Generic`** is basic catchall
169 * **`Bio::SeqFeature::Similarity`** a similarity sequence feature
170 * **`Bio::SeqFeature::FeaturePair`** a sequence feature which is pairwise
171 such as query/hit pairs
173 * **`SearchIO`** is for *reading and writing pairwise alignment reports*, like
176 * **`Search`** is where the *alignment objects for `SearchIO` are defined*
177 * **`Bio::Search::Result::GenericResult`** is the result object (a blast
178 query is a `Result` object)
179 * **`Bio::Search::Hit::GenericHit`** is the `Hit` object (a query will have
180 0 to many hits in a database)
181 * **`Bio::Search::HSP::GenericHSP`** is the High-scoring Segment Pair
182 object defining the alignment(s) of the query and hit.
184 * **`SimpleAlign`** is for *multiple sequence alignments*
186 * **`AlignIO`** is for *reading and writing multiple sequence alignment
189 * **`Assembly`** provides the start of an *infrastructure for assemblies* and
190 **`Assembly::IO`** *IO converters* for them
192 * **`DB`** is the namespace for *all the database query classes*
193 * **`Bio::DB::GenBank/GenPept`** are two modules which query NCBI entrez for
195 * **`Bio::DB::SwissProt/EMBL`** query various EMBL and SwissProt
196 repositories for a sequences
197 * **`Bio::DB::GFF`** is Lincoln Stein's fast, lightweight feature and
198 sequence database which is the backend to his GBrowse system (see
200 * **`Bio::DB::Flat`** is a fast implementation of the OBDA flat-file
201 indexing system (cross-language and cross-platform supported by O|B|F
202 projects see http://obda.open-bio.org).
203 * **`Bio::DB::BioFetch/DBFetch`** for OBDA, Web (HTTP) access to remote
205 * **`Bio::DB::InMemoryCache/FileCache`** (fast local caching of sequences
206 from remote dbs to speed up your access).
207 * **`Bio::DB::Registry`** interface to the OBDA specification for remote
209 * **`Bio::DB::Biblio`** for access to remote bibliographic databases.
210 * **`Bio::DB::EUtilities`** is the initial set of modules used for generic
211 queried using NCBI's eUtils.
213 * **`Annotation`** collection of *annotation objects* (comments, DBlinks,
214 References, and misc key/value pairs)
216 * **`Coordinate`** is a system for *mapping between different coordinate systems*
217 such as DNA to protein or between assemblies
219 * **`Index`** is for *locally indexed flatfiles* with BerkeleyDB
221 * **`Tools`** contains many *miscellaneous parsers and functions* for different
223 * Gene prediction parser (Genscan, MZEF, Grail, Genemark)
224 * Annotation format (GFF)
225 * Enumerate codon tables and valid sequences symbols (CodonTable,
227 * Phylogenetic program parsing (PAML, Molphy, Phylip)
229 * **`Map`** represents *genetic and physical map representations*
231 * **`Structure`** - parse and represent *protein structure data*
233 * **`TreeIO`** is for reading and writing *Tree formats*
235 * **`Tree`** is the namespace for **all associated Tree classes**
236 * **`Bio::Tree::Tree`** is the basic tree object
237 * **`Bio::Tree::Node`** are the nodes which make up the tree
238 * **`Bio::Tree::Statistics`** is for computing statistics for a tree
239 * **`Bio::Tree::TreeFunctionsI`** is where specific tree functions are
240 implemented (like `is_monophyletic` and `lca`)
242 * **`Bio::Biblio`** is where *bibliographic data and database access objects*
245 * **`Variation`** represent *sequences with mutations and variations* applied so
246 one can compare and represent wild-type and mutation versions of a sequence.
248 * **`Root`**, basic objects for the *internals of BioPerl*
250 # Upgrading from an older version
252 If you have a previously installed version of BioPerl on your system some of
253 these notes may help you.
255 * Some modules have been removed because they have been superceded by new
256 development efforts. They are documented in the **`DEPRECATED`** file that is
257 included in the release.
259 * Some methods, or the Application Programming Interface (API), have changed or
260 been removed. You may find that scripts which worked with BioPerl 1.4 may give
261 you warnings or may not work at all (although we have tried very hard to
262 minimize this!). Send an email to the list and we'll be happy to give you