Abstract

Currently from the four scripting languages Perl, Python, Tcl and Ruby only for Tcl there is no structured framework of tools and applications for computational molecular biology. This is a surprising issue because of its clear syntax, high portability and extensibility Tcl is an ideal choice as a scripting language for biological problems. Furthermore with the Starkit [1] approach Tcl has an excellent system to deliver applications and libraries to the researcher without going into a nightmare of installation procedures and prerequisites. The foundations of the Biotcl project will be Snit, Itcl and possibly a Tcl−only emulation of Xotcl as object oriented extensions, Metakit databases as RDBMS, a small embedded webserver in order to present the documentation and graphical interfaces for the applications. The project will restrict furthermore mainly to Tcl only libraries in order to achieve maximum portability. However for speed and memory issues there will be some compiled extensions available separately as well. Applications, libraries and documentation (Wiki/HTML format) will be embedded in one single Starkit file in order to simplify installation and maintenance as much as possible.

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