Re: [MacPerl] Biology with MacPerl?

[David Steffen <steffen@biomedcomp.com>]

Nikola:

>I found bio.perl.org site but than I realized that (here comes java 
>flashbacks) it is heavilly biased toward Unix Perl. Since I am 
>beginner in Pearl, I am unable to estimate how many of numerous Perl 
>resources are applicable to MacPerl....does anybody uses Mac Perl in 
>biological research and are there any sites related to the use of 
>MacPerl in biology?

I make my living developing software for biological research, and I 
developed a major package for a biotech company in MacPerl (with a 
little bit of C; (Mac)Perl is just too slow for Smith Waterman 
alignments).

1) I think you will find little on the bioperl site that won't work 
in MacPerl; any modifications should be minor.  It is my impression 
that Perl is much more portable between Unix and Mac than is Java.

2) Having said that, Unix is a much better platform for this kind of 
work than is the Mac.  Version 1 of my package was in MacPerl (and 
thus ran on Macs) and was instrumental in raising venture capital for 
the company.  Once they had the money, they purchased good Unix 
computers (SGI) and version 2 was in Python under Unix.

3) Bioperl is a small niche.  A Mac version would be vanishingly 
small and way  below critical mass.  Given the portability of Perl, I 
don't see that this is necessary anyway.

Have fun!

-David Steffen-
David Steffen, Ph.D.
President, Biomedical Computing, Inc. <http://www.biomedcomp.com/>
Phone: (713) 610-9770 FAX: (713) 610-9769 E-mail: steffen@biomedcomp.com

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