Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!munnari.oz.au!murdu!ucsvc!wehi!tony
From: TONY@wehi.dn.mu.oz (Tony Kyne, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)
Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.genbank,bionet.molbio.pir
Subject: GenBank gets big and PIR format has problems!
Message-ID: <6588@wehi.dn.mu.oz>
Date: 9 Apr 90 18:28:05 GMT
Organization: Walter & Eliza Hall Institute
Lines: 26


	I have just received version 63.0 of GenBank with its 33,377 sequences.
I (like many others I presume) keep the database as one database in PIR format
on my VMS system. Now that GenBank has passed the 32000 odd mark (ie 2**15-1),
the standard PIR VMS format falls apart, as the format stores the ISNO part
in INTEGER*2 format.
	Before I start reworking all the software on our system, are the powers
that be at PIR (or elsewhere) settling on a new standard format??? Or is the
thing to do, just break up GenBank into its taxonomic parts? I suspect EMBL
will also crash through the 2**15-1 barrier with the next release as well.
Or is a new generally agreed format about to emerge that will facilitate
more dynamic updating now that we have weekly ftp updates and USENET daily
updates. The current PIR format more or less requires a complete database
reload (or part thereof) every day or week as the case maybe.
	                               Tony Kyne

================================================================================
Dr. Tony Kyne, Head, Computer Sciences Unit,
               The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research,
               P.O. Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, 3050, Australia.
Phone: International +61-3-345-2586       FAX: International +61-3-347-0852
            National 03-345-2586                    National 03-347-0852
Email: ACSnet: tony@wehi.dn.mu.oz        UUCP: uunet!munnari!wehi.dn.mu.oz!tony
     Internet: tony%wehi.dn.mu.oz@uunet.uu.net
      PSIMAIL: PSI%0505233430002::tony
===============================================================================