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- Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!swrinde!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!acedbfaq
- From: acedbfaq@s27w007.pswfs.gov (ACEDB FAQ Pseudouser)
- Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb,news.answers
- Subject: ACEDB Genome Database Software FAQ
- Followup-To: bionet.software.acedb
- Date: 6 Apr 1994 21:22:09 GMT
- Organization: Dendrome, A genome database for forest trees
- Lines: 878
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
- Message-ID: <2nv961$82i@overload.lbl.gov>
- Reply-To: acedbfaq@s27w007.pswfs.gov
- NNTP-Posting-Host: s27w007.pswfs.gov
- Summary: Frequently Asked Questions about finding and getting
- started with the database system ACEDB. ACEDB is used
- to collect information regarding the molecular biology
- of the genome.
- Archive-name: acedb-faq
- Last-modified: 4/6/94
- Version: 1.10
- Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu bionet.software.acedb:173 news.answers:17747
-
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Common Questions, with Answers, about ACEDB.
-
-
- Q0: What is ACEDB?
- Q1: What is the current version of ACEDB?
- Q2: What hardware/software do I need to run ACEDB?
- Q3: Where can I get ACEDB?
- Q4: What ACEDB databases exist?
- Q5: !What written documentation exists for ACEDB?
- Q6: Where can I find further information about ACEDB?
- Q7: How should ACEDB be cited?
- Q8: Is ACEDB object-oriented?
- Q9: What's all this about Gopher|WAIS|ftp|WWW|URL ...
- Q10: How can I get on/off the ACEDB announcements mailing list?
- Q11: When and where is the next ACEDB Workshop?
- Q411:!Who prepared this document & where is the current version?
-
- Questions marked with + are new, those with !
- have substantially changed answers.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q0: What is ACEDB?
-
-
- A0: ACEDB is an acronym for A Caenorhabditis elegans Database. It can
- refer to a database and data concerning the nematode C. elegans,
- or to the database software alone. This document is concerned
- primarily with the latter meaning. ACEDB is being adapted by many
- groups to organize molecular biology data about the genomes of
- diverse species [see Q4].
-
- ACEDB allows for automatic cross-referencing of items during
- loading and allows for hypertextual navigation of the links
- using a graphical user interface and mouse. Certain special
- purpose graphical displays have been integrated into the
- software. These reflect the needs of molecular biologists
- in constructing genetic and physical maps of genomes.
-
- ACEDB was written and developed by Richard Durbin (MRC LMB
- Cambridge, England) and Jean Thierry-Mieg (CNRS, Montpellier,
- France), beginning circa 1990. It is written in the C programming
- language and uses the X11 windowing system to provide a platform
- independent graphical user interface. The source code is publicly
- available [See Q3]. Durbin & Thierry-Mieg continue to develop
- the system, with contributions from other groups including
- Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the European integrated Genome
- Project.
-
- A description by Durbin & Thierry-Mieg:
- ACEDB does not use an underlying relational database
- schema, but a system we wrote ourselves in which data
- are stored in objects that belong in classes. This is
- nevertheless a general database management system using
- caches, session control, and a powerful query language.
- Typical objects are clones, genes, alleles, papers,
- sequences, etc. Each object is stored as a tree,
- following a hierarchical structure for the class (called
- the "model"). Maps are derived from data stored in tree
- objects, but precomputed and stored as tables for
- efficiency. The system of models allows flexibility
- and efficiency of storage -missing data are not stored.
- A major advantage is that the models can be extended
- and refined without invalidating an existing database.
- Comments can be added to any node of an object.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q1: What is the current version of ACEDB?
-
-
- A1: As of January 1994, ACEDB has undergone a bifurcation. Those
- involved with C. elegans will want to to track the 2.x series
- under the stewardship of Richard Durbin and all other groups
- should probably track the 3.x series of Jean Thierry-Mieg.
- Thierry-Mieg writes "... 2 and 3 differ only at the level of
- displays ..." Version 2.0 was released in December, 1993 and
- version 3.0 was released in January, 1994.
-
- To retrieve the software see Q3.
-
- To be kept informed of new releases see Q10.
-
- [This question refers to the software not the C. elegans data.]
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q2: What hardware/software do I need to run ACEDB?
-
-
- A2:
-
- Unix and X11:
-
- Any machine running SunOS 4.x
- SPARCstation 10 under Solaris [Probably all Solaris, then --bks]
- DEC DECstation3100, 5100 etc.
- DEC Alpha/OSF-1
- Silicon Graphics Iris series
- PC 386/486 with Linux (free Unix)
- There exist, or have existed, ports onto Alliant, Hewlett-
- Packard, IBM R6000, Convex. You may have to contact
- the developer responsible for the port to make these real.
- NeXT: contact Patrick Phillips at University of Texas,
- NeXTmail: patrick@wbar.uta.edu
- phil@decster.uta.edu
-
- MSDOS/Windows/NT:
-
- A port to NT is rumored to be in the works.
-
- Macintosh:
-
- A port to the Macintosh may become available real soon now.
- Beta versions of this *might* be found at the ACE archives.
- See Q3.
- Here is a note from Richard Durbin:
- There is now a tested Macintosh version.
- You need a Macintosh with >16Mb of memory
- and a decent monitor. You also need some
- way of obtaining the files from an ftp site
- (e.g. NCSA telnet, Versaterm Pro...) and
- Stuffit Deluxe, which I am told costs $65
- in the USA, and is useful anyway for
- compressing/decompressing files. It turns
- out that Stuffit Deluxe can decompress Unix
- .tar.Z archive files. Frank Eeckman has now
- made available a .tar.Z archive of a complete
- C. elegans ACEDB database, with updates already
- read in. Ftp to genome.lbl.gov, folder
- pub/macace, and follow the instructions in
- README. Thank you Frank.
-
-
- For cost savings, a combination of a high-end Intel platform
- with Linux appears very attractive.
-
- Here at the Institute of Forest Genetics we run ACEDB on a
- Sun Microsystems SPARCstation II, and users can interact
- using Macintoshes and PC-clones by using X11 implementations
- for the personal computers and a LAN. [This section should
- be expanded to have a more thorough discussion of X11
- interactions. --bks]
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q3: Where can I get ACEDB?
-
-
- A3: All the files are available in the following public access
- accounts (anonymous ftp sites) accessible via Internet:
-
-
- lirmm.lirmm.fr (193.49.104.10) in pub/acedb
-
-
- cele.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk (131.111.84.1) in pub/acedb
-
-
- ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (130.14.20.1) in repository/acedb
-
-
- (version 1-10 is available in repository/aatdb)
-
-
- bioinformatics.weizmann.ac.il (132.76.55.12) in
- pub/databases/acedb.
-
-
-
- A typical session would be:
- ftp ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- login: anonymous
- password: your email address
- cd repository/acedb/ace3
- binary
- ls
- get README_3
- get NOTES
- get INSTALL
- get bin.sparc.3.0.tar.Z
- quit
-
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q4: What ACEDB databases exist?
-
-
- A4: [In alphabetic order by Database name.
- Curators, submit changes as new paragraphs.--bks]
-
- Database : AAnDB-1.0
- Species : Aspergillus nidulans
- PI : Leland Ellis
- Last_update : February 1994
- ACEDB_version : 3.0
- Contact : leland@stralight.tamu.edu
- URL : http://keck.tamu.edu/ibt.html
- Comment : defunct, See AGsDB
-
- Database : AAtDB
- Species : Arabidopsis thaliana
- Availability :
- Curator : John Morris
- Current version: 1-5
- Contact : curator@frodo.mgh.harvard.edu
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : ABtDB-1.0
- Species : Bovine, Bos taurus
- ACEDB_version : 3.0 extended
- PI : Leland Ellis
- Last_update : February 1994
- Contact : leland@stralight.tamu.edu
- URL : http://keck.tamu.edu/ibt.html
- Comment : defunct, See AGsDB
-
- Database : ACeDB
- Species : Caenorhabditis elegans
- Current version: 2-9
- Curator : Jean Thierry-Mieg
- Curator : Richard Durbin
- Contact : rd@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
- Contact : mieg@kaa.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr
- Last_update : March 1994
-
- Database : AceMap
- Species : Homo Sapiens (Saccaromyces Pombe, Mus musculus in development)
- Focus : Physical mapping of human chromosomes X and 21
- Curator : Hugues Roest Crollius
- Contact : hrc@gea.lif.icnet.uk
- PI : Hans Lehrach
- PI : Hugues Roest Crollius
- Last_update : 22 Feb 1994
-
- Database : AGhDB
- Species : Gossipium hirsutum (cotton)
- PI : Russ Klhel
- Curator : Stephanie Crouch
- Last_update : March 1994
- Contact : scrouch@tamsun.tamu.edu
-
- Database : AGsDB A Genus species Database
- Species : Aspergillus nidulans
- Species : Neurospora crassa
- Species : cow w/ human anchor loci
- Species : cotton (demo)
- Species : Homologs of Aspergillus cell cycle loci
- for budding and fission yeast
- PI : Leland Ellis
- Curator : Leland Ellis
- Last_update : March 1994
- ACeDB_version : 3.0 (beta still), with extensions to the Human
- C21 Models to provide for multiple species, and queries
- between species via Homologs (e.g., cell cycle loci with
- links via Homologs between Aspergillus and budding
- C. cerevisiae) and fission (S. pombe) yeast);
- interacting loci via defined Interactions for each locus
- Models : as of 3.13.94
- Data : as of 3.13.94
- Revision : AAnDB for Aspergillus nidulans and ABtDB for Bos taurus
- (cow) have been folded into AGsDB, and are not being
- developed futher as individual species databases.
- WWW : WWW-AGsDB is an interface of AGsDB with the World-Wide Web,
- and utilizes the WWW-ACeDB Server (nph-acedb3) of Guy Ducoux
- (ducoux@moulon.inra.fr).
- URL : http://keck.tamu.edu/ibt.html
- Contact : leland@straylight.tamu.edu
-
- Database : ASbDB
- Species : Sorghum bicolor
- PI : Keith Schertz
- Curator : Stephanie Crouch
- Last_update : March 1994
- Contact : scrouch@tamsum.tamu.edu
-
- Database : ChlamyDB
- Species : Chlamydomonas
- PI : Elizabeth Harris
- Contact : chlamy@acpub.duke.edu
- Availability : Still under construction
- Last_update : 30 Sept. 1993
-
- Database : EcoDB
- Species : E. coli
- PI : Staffan Bergh
- Contact : staffan@biochem.kth.se
- Availability : Still under construction
- Last_update : 11 Oct. 1993
-
- Database : FlyBase
- Species : Drosophila melanogaster
- Availability : gopher or gopher+ ftp.bio.indiana.edu
- Availability : ACeDB-style interface to SyBase server
- due by end of 1994
- Curator : Edward Welbourne
- Contact : eddy@gen.cam.ac.uk
- Contact : flybase@morgan.harvard.edu
- PI : William Gelbart
- PI : Michael Ashburner
- PI : Thomas Kaufman
- PI : Kathy Matthews
- PI : John Merriam
-
- Database : Flydb
- Species : Drosophila melanogaster
- Availability : by request only, via ftp
- Curator : Suzanna E. Lewis
- Contact : SELewis@lbl.gov
- Focus : STS content mapping project summary
- PI : Gerald Rubin
- PI : Mike Palazzolo
- PI : Dan Hartl
- PI : Alan Spradling
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : GrainGenes
- Species : Wheat, barley, oats, relatives
- Availability : Anonymous ftp from probe.nalusda.gov:pub/grains
- Availability : Gopher greengenes.cit.cornell.edu port 70
- Availability : Gopher probe.nalusda.gov port 7002
- Curator : David E. Matthews
- PI : Olin D. Anderson
- Contact : matthews@greengenes.cit.cornell.edu
- Contact : oandersn@wheat.usda.gov
- URL : gopher://greengenes.cit.cornell.edu/1/
- Data_version : 1.3
- Released : 12 Jan 1994
- Based_on : acedb.1-10
- Availability : See following WWW URL
- URL : http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000/acedbs/acedbs/graingenes/index.html
- Last_update : Feb. 1994
-
- Database : human.c17
- Species : Homo sapiens
- Availability : the database is under development
- Contact : lsprilus@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il
- Focus : mapping & sequencing of Human Chromosome 17
- Based_on: acedb.3-0
- Last_update : Jan. 1994
-
- Database : Mace
- Species : Zea mays L. ssp. mays
- Focus : Maize genome
- Comment : Mace is the front end for maizedb, a relational
- (SYBASE) database. It is updated from maizedb by
- software written by Stan Letovsky. Maizedb is
- updated daily and will soon be accessible by
- public login.
- Curator : Ed Coe
- Curator : Pat Byrne
- Curator : Georgia Davis
- Curator : Mary Polacco
- Off-Site Curator : Marty Sachs
- Off-Site Curator : Christiane Fauron
- Off-Site Curator : Carolyn Wetzel
- Off-Site Curator : Steve Rodermel
- Off-Site Curator/Designer : Stan Letovsky
- Off-Site Curator/Designer : Mary Berlyn
- Systems Manager : Denis Hancock
- PI : Ed Coe
- Contact : maizedb@teosinte.agron.missouri.edu
- Last_update: 5 October 1993
-
- Database : MycDB
- Species : Mycobacterium
- PI : Staffan Bergh
- PI : Thierry Garnier
- PI : Stewart Cole
- Contact : staffan@biochem.kth.se
- Contact : stcole@pasteur.fr
- Last_update : 18 March 1994
- URL: http://kiev.physchem.kth.se/MycDB.html
- URL: ftp://kiev.physchem.kth.se/pub/MycDB
- URL: ftp://ftp.pasteur.fr/pub/MycDB
-
- Database : RiceGenes
- Species : Rice (O. sative)
- Availability : under development, login at own risk
- Curator : Edie Paul
- Contact : epaul@nightshade.cit.cornell.edu
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : SolGenes
- Coverage: Solanaceae - tomato, potato, pepper (eventually)
- Availability : Beta ACEDB via login or tar file
- Curator : Edie Paul
- Contact : epaul@nightshade.cit.cornell.edu
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : SoyBase
- Species : Soybeans
- Curator : Lisa Lorenzen
- PI : Randy Shoemaker
- Contact : lorenzen@mendel.agron.iastate.edu
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : TreeGenes
- Species : Forest trees
- Availability : alpha, contact curator
- ACEDB_version : 1-10
- Curator : Bradley K. Sherman
- PI : David B. Neale
- Contact : Dendrome@s27w007.pswfs.gov
- Contact : bks@s27w007.pswfs.gov
- Contact : dbn@s27w007.pswfs.gov
- Last_update : March 1994
- URL : gopher://s27w007.pswfs.gov/
- URL : http://s27w007.pswfs.gov/
- URL : ftp://probe.nalusda.gov/pub/trees
-
- Database : 21Bdb
- Species : Homo sapiens
- Availability : by request, via ftp, gopher
- Curator : Donn F. Davy
- Contact : DFDavy@lbl.gov
- Contact : aggarwal@genome.lbl.gov
- Focus : STS content mapping & sequencing of Human Chromosome 21
- PI : Jasper Rine
- PI : Michael Palazzolo
- PI : Chris Martin
- PI : Jan-Fang Cheng
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : VoxPop
- Species : Populus spp.
- Availability : contact curator
- Curator : Carl G. Riches
- PI : Reinhard F. Stettler
- Contact : cgr@poplar1.cfr.washington.edu
- Contact : STETTLER@coyote.cfr.washington.edu
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : ?
- PI : Scott Chasalow
- Species : Potato
- Contact : Scottish Crop Institute, Dundee
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : ?
- PI : George Murphy
- PI : David Flanders
- Species : Arabidopsis thaliana
- Contact : John Innes Center, Norwich, England
- Last_update : Sept. 1993
-
- Database : ?
- Species : Homo sapiens
- Focus : Physical mapping of human chromosomes 22 and X
- Curator : Ian Dunham
- Contact : idunham@crc.ac.uk id1@sanger.ac.uk
- PI : Ian Dunham
- PI : David Bentley
- Last_update : 28 Sep 1993
-
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q5: What written documentation exists for ACEDB?
-
-
- A5:
- From Sam Cartinhour:
- The ACEDB Documentation Server is a repository for
- documentation concerned with "A C. elegans Data Base",
- the generic genome database software designed by
- Richard Durbin (MRC, UK) and Jean Thierry-Mieg
- (CNRS, France). The server is intended as a resource
- for developers, curators, and end-users of all (not
- just plant) databases derived from ace. Eventually
- we hope to offer all kinds of documentation, from
- reprints to (technical) gossip. The ACEDB
- documentation server is sponsored by the Plant Genome
- Database Project at the National Agricultural Library
- (USDA). The documentation server is listed on the
- home page for the Agricultural Genome World Wide Web
- Server at http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000.
-
- Primary documents from the developers are:
- acedb -- A C. elegans Database: I. Users' Guide.
- acedb -- A C. elegans Database: II. Installation Guide.
- acedb -- A C. elegans Database: III. Configuration Guide.
- Syntactic Definitions for the ACEDB Data Base Manager
- --Jean Thierry-Mieg and Richard Durbin (1991-)
-
- Get By anonymous ftp from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (130.14.20.1)
- in repository/acedb:
- ftp://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/respository/acedb/doc*tar.Z
- And ftp://weeds.mgh.harvard.edu/acedb_doc
- The files are in tex and postscript. [I have had
- some difficulty printing these. Jean Thierry-Mieg
- suggests latex xxxx.tex, dvi2ps xxxx.dvi > xxxx.ps,
- lpr xxxx.ps.]
-
- You will find interesting documents in the wdoc
- subdirectory of the ACEDB distribution.
-
- Cherry, J.M., Cartinhour, S.W., and Goodman, H.M. (1992) AAtDB,
- An Arabidopsis thaliana Database. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter
- 10 (4): 308-309,409-410
-
- Tutorial manual for AAtDB:
- Cartinhour, S., Cherry, J.M., and Goodman, H.M. (1992) An
- Introduction to ACeDB: For AAtDB, An Arabidopsis thaliana
- Database. Massachusetts General Hospital. (Available on
- request in printed form from the AAtDB curator).
-
- A description of ACEDB:
- Cherry, J.M. and Cartinhour, S.W. (1993) ACEDB, A tool for
- biological information. in Automated DNA Sequencing and
- Analysis, edited by M. Adams, C. Fields, and C. Venter.
- Academic Press (in press). [text is available through
- ftp or gopher from weeds.mgh.harvard.edu]
-
- Another description of ACEDB for physical mapping projects:
- Dunham, I., Durbin, R., Mieg, J-T & Bentley, D.R. (1993)
- Physical mapping projects and ACEDB, in Guide to Human
- Genome Computing. Ed. Bishop, M.J. (Academic Press)
- (review, in press). [text is available through ftp or
- gopher from weeds.mgh.harvard.edu]
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q6: Where can I find further information about ACEDB?
-
-
- A6: There is a Usenet/Biosci conference titled bionet.software.acedb.
- If you do not have access to the Biosci conferences via a
- newsreader (e.g. rn, trn) you can participate in the conference
- by electronic mail. To subscribe to the e-mail version of the
- conference send email to biosci-server@net.bio.net (UK, European
- readers use biosci@uk.ac.daresbury or biosci.daresbury.ac.uk) with
- no subject line and only the message
-
- subscribe ACEDB-SOFT
-
- in the body. To unsubscribe send the message
-
- unsubscribe ACEDB-SOFT
-
- to the same address.
- This is an automated service. Your e-mail address will be taken
- from the header of the message that you send. If you then send
- mail to acedb@net.bio.net the mail will be distributed to all
- subscribers and to the electronic conference.
-
- Mike Cherry has set up an ACEDB Developer's archive. For
- anonymous ftp use the hostname weeds.mgh.harvard.edu and look in
- the acedb_dev directory. If you wish to contribute you can put
- files in the incoming directory. Send a message to Mike
- (cherry@genome.stanford.edu) that you have put something in that
- directory then Mike will move it out for general access.
- For gopher you can connect to weeds.mgh.harvard.edu
- (132.183.190.21) and ...
-
- --> N. FTP Archives for Molecular Biology/
-
- then
-
- --> M. ACEDB Developer's archive/
-
- [N and M are integers which are subject to change.]
-
- The bionet.software. acedb.conference is archived and can be
- searched using WAIS. Here is a Gopher-style link to the WAIS
- archive. (This is also courtesy of Mike Cherry.):
-
- #
- Type=7
- Name=ACEDB BioSci Electronic Conference
- Path=7/.index/acedb-biosci
- Host=genome-gopher.stanford.edu
- Port=70
-
-
- The AAtDB, Soybase, GrainGenes, Mace, and TreeGenes [see Q4]
- databases regularly submit data to the Plant Genome Database
- at the National Agricultural Library (NAL). Nal makes this
- data available via the WWW using an http server with URL:
-
- http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000/index.html
-
- You will also find a selection of models.wrm files (schemata)
- for the various databases here. You will want to get a
- "mosaic client" to examine this.
-
- Other URL's that readers with mosaic clients might want to
- examine are:
-
- http://moulon.inra.fr/acedb/acedb.html for C. elegans data
-
-
- http://moulon.inra.fr/acedb/mycdb.html for Mycobacterium data
-
-
- http://moulon.inra.fr:8001/acedb/igd.html for an integrated
- genome database.
-
-
-
- For information on how these were created see
-
- http://moulon.inra.fr/acedb_conf_eng.html
-
-
- http://moulon.inra.fr/acedb_conf.html (en francais)
-
-
- The Genome Computing Group, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
- has an anonymous ftp service at machine genome.lbl.gov
- (131.243.224.80) which contains:
- flydb - LBL's Drosophila Acedb-style database
- 21bdb - LBL's Human Chromosome 21 Acedb-style database
- querdb - LBL's query-language extensions to Acedb
- metadata - LBL's compendium of Acedb database schema variants
- macace-aatdb-demo.hqx - pre-release Acedb MacIntosh version
- There is also a repository of contributed software for
- data conversions and the like.
-
-
- Computer staff for the UC Berkeley Drosophila physical mapping
- project the LBL Human Chromosome 21 project, and the LBL plant
- genome projects meet regularly to coordinate their ACEDB
- extension and development efforts, along with Frank Eeckman,
- who is working on the Macintosh version of ACEDB (for further
- information, contact jlmccarthy@lbl.gov). They also keep in
- close touch (via email, personal visits, etc.) with their
- counterparts in Cambridge (Richard Durbin et al), Montpellier
- Jean Thierry-Mieg et al), and the Interated Genome Database
- project in Heidelburg (Otto Ritter, Detlef Wolf et al).
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q7: How should ACEDB be cited?
-
-
- A7: From the distribution:
-
- We realize that we have not yet published any "real" paper on
- ACEDB. We consider however that anonymous ftp servers are a
- form of publication. We would appreciate if users of ACEDB
- could quote:
- Richard Durbin and Jean Thierry Mieg (1991-). A C. elegans
- Database. Documentation, code and data available from
- anonymous FTP servers at lirmm.lirmm.fr,
- cele.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk and ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
-
- Papers involved in database development could quote more
- precisely:
- I. Users' Guide. Included as part of the ACEDB distribution
- kit,
- II. Installation Guide. Included as part of the ACEDB
- distribution
- III. Configuration Guide. Included as part of the ACEDB
- distribution
-
- and the preprintkit, available by Anonymous FTP from ...
- Jean Thierry-Mieg and Richard Durbin (1992). Syntactic
- Definitions for the ACEDB Data Base Manager. Included as
- part of the ACEDB distribution.
-
- --Jean and Richard.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q8: Is ACEDB object-oriented?
-
-
- A8: From the ACEDB User's Guide.
-
- A major current vogue in computer languages and database design
- is for ``object-oriented'' systems. It's also a source of lots
- of argument. We are just trying to build a good system, and
- don't want to get caught in the crossfire, but we do talk about
- organising our data into objects and classes. We have undoubtedly
- been influenced by many of the ideas going around, but it isn't
- likely our system would be regarded as kosher by the object-
- oriented community. In particular there is no class hierarchy, nor
- inheritance, and it is written in a modular but non-ideological way
- in straight C. However display and disk storage methods are class
- dependent.
-
- In some ways the class hierarchy is replaced by our system of
- models and trees, which seems to be rather unusual. We think it
- is very natural for the representation of biological information,
- where for some members of a class a lot might be known about some
- aspect, but for most only a little is known.
-
- The advantages of our sytem over a relational database, such as
- Oracle or Sybase, is our ability to refine our descriptions without
- rebuilding the database and the possibility of organising the
- storage of data on disk according to their class, i.e. we store in
- a very different way the tree-objects and the long stretches of
- DNA sequence.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q9: What's all this about Gopher/WAIS/ftp/WWW ...
-
-
- A9: These terms all refer to Internet protocols.
- An excellent introduction to the Internet is:
- _The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog_,
- by Ed Krol, O'Reilly & Associates, 1992.
- Or ask your system administrator to provide you with
- a gopher client or mosaic client and begin navigating
- on your own.
-
- URL is a Universal Resource Locator on the World-Wide
- Web (WWW). There are many free Internet browsers
- available that allow you to use an Internet connection
- and a URL to access services. Mosaic may be the
- most popular and it is available for Mac, PC or Unix
- via anonymous ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q10: How can I get on/off the ACEDB announcements mailing list?
-
-
- A10: To get on or off the mailing list send mail to
- rd@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk or mieg@kaa.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr.
- New releases of the software are announced to
- this list.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q11: When and where is the Next ACEDB Workshop?
-
-
- From Jean Thierry-Mieg:
- DATES:
- The acedb '94 workshop will be held july 2 to 16, in Saint Matthieu
- de Treviers, a small village, 20 km north of Montpellier, at the
- foot of the Pic Saint Loup.
-
- HOUSING:
- We have booked a place meant for family vacations which includes
- ample space, a nice conference room and ten studios meant for 5
- people (bathroom, shower, kitchenette, terrace, all nice and clean)
- that we plan to share among 3 to 4 participants. Meals will be
- taken at a local restaurant.
-
- The place is ideal for work and informal discussions and will be
- well equiped with computers. The situation is nice for hiking and
- allows volley-ball, ping-pong, tennis and petanque.
-
- We can provide lists of possible hotels for those who would prefer
- more privacy or find ways of accomodating families if you let us
- know very soon (school ends early july in France).
-
- Cost for 2 weeks is 1000 FF (about 200 US dollars) for housing on
- site plus 2500 FF for full meals. We may get enough funding to
- reduce this cost, but cannot pay for travel.
-
- PROGRAM:
- Formal presentations and general discussions will take place in the
- mornings and the evenings, alternating network aspects, data handling,
- displays and genome data analaysis.
-
- The afternoons will be dedicated to data manipulation, programming
- and writing documentation. The idea is to actually implement during
- the meeting many of the ideas that will come up, to fuse and
- coallesce the now numerous acedb-based applications into a working
- modular package, and to import and consolidate large sets of
- additional data.
-
- Towards this goal, we will broadcast the following announcement
-
- ACEDB'94 Genome Database Workshop.
-
- Montpellier, July 2-16, 1994
-
- This meeting will cover the use and development of the
- ACEDB database manager central to several major genome projects,
- including C.elegans, A.thaliana, human, and a number of
- other plant and animal species.
-
- We wish to encourage people with large sets of data on other
- organisms to attend this workshop. They will be helped to build,
- during the meeting, a friendly graphic presentation of their own
- data, in return for discussing their own experience.
-
- *******************************************************************
-
- FORMAT:
- This meeting will be much longer than the 2 previous acedb workshops
- (Cambridge 92 and Boston 93), in the hope of initiating new
- collaborations and allowing concrete results. This format is usual in
- physics summer schools and often very productive.
-
- The workshop may be coupled to a 2 days presentation of acedb, open
- to the general audience, and yet to be organised.
-
- We anticipate at least the participation of people from: Berkeley,
- Boston, Cambridge, Heidelberg and Montpellier, including Richard
- Durbin (LMB and Sanger Centre, Cambridge), John McCarthy (LBL,
- Berkeley), Otto Ritter (DKFZ, Heidelberg), Danielle and Jean
- Thierry-Mieg (CNRS, Montpellier).
-
- Please confirm your participation and forward this announcement to
- your colleagues.
-
- Danielle and Jean Thierry-Mieg
- CNRS-CRBM
- BP 5051,
- 34033 Montpellier, France.
-
- email mieg@kaa.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr
- (if this address fails, fall back on mieg@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
-
- Tel: (33) 67 61 33 24
- Fax: (33) 67 52 15 59
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Q411:Who prepared this document & where is the current version?
-
-
- [Note to international readers: 411 is the phone number for
- information in the USA. --bks]
-
- This version of the FAQ represents an attempt to bring
- an html version and a plain text version into congruence. Please
- let me know of any new errors that I may have introduced, and
- bear with me through the changeover. Thanks. --bks
-
- This document will be posted monthly to the BIOSCI newsgroup
- bionet.software.acedb and to USENET conference news.answers.
- It is intended to be used as an index to ACEDB databases and
- to information about the database software.
-
- The latest version of the ACEDB FAQ should be available via
- anonymous ftp at machine net.bio.net (134.172.2.69) as
- file pub/BIOSCI/ACEDB/ACEDB.FAQ or at rtfm.mit.edu
- (18.70.0.209) as pub/usenet/news.answers/acedb-faq. Answer 3
- demonstrates a sample FTP session. If you only have
- electronic mail, the FAQ can be retrieved from
- mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu.
-
- There is an HyperText Markup Language (HTML) version of this
- document available on the World Wide Web:
- http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000/plant/acedbfaq.html
- [Until I get more familiar with HTML, it may not be totally
- synchronized with the plain FAQ. --bks]
-
- Curators of ACEDB databases should take note of Question 4 and
- keep me apprised of changes.
-
- Errors of commission or omission are unintentional. If I have
- forgotten to give you credit please let me know. Please
- send comments and corrections to: acedbfaq@s27w007.pswfs.gov
-
- Major contributions in getting this FAQ off the ground
- were made by John McCarthy and Mike Cherry. Other
- contributors include:
-
- Lisa Lorenzen
- David Matthews
- Edie Paul
- Donn Davy
- Eric De Mund
- Sam Cartinhour
-
-
- Please cite as:
- Sherman, Bradley K. (1994) "ACEDB Genome Database FAQ."
- Usenet news.answers. Available via Universal Resource
- Locator ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/acedb-faq
-
- To add or modify information in this document, please
- send mail to: acedbfaq@s27w007.pswfs.gov
-
-
- Bradley K. Sherman
- Dendrome Project
- Institute of Forest Genetics
- P.O. Box 245, Berkeley, CA, 94701
- Phone: 510-559-6437 Fax: 510-559-6440
-
-
- The Dendrome Project and TreeGenes are funded by the
- USDA ARS Plant Genome Research Program.
-
- --bks
- ---------------------End of file acedb-faq----------------------------
-