From: Borries Demeler <demeler@bioc02.uthscsa.edu>
  To  : rasmb@bbri.harvard.edu
  Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 09:19:34 -0500 (CDT)

binary: consensus?; move to new group? (fwd)

> subdirectory "tree" scheme and putting all scans for each experiment
> into a single directory (an idea which I believe would also require
> another major change in the ASCII data file naming convention).  

I would prefer a naming system by which all scans for a single cell
are in a single file. The filename should definitely adhere to the 
DOS 8.3 naming convention to assure backwards compatibility with older 
OS's and should include a 5 or 6 character user defined identifier for 
the run, and the remaining characters should be used to identify the
various run characteristics, such as cell number, wavelength selection
(in case of an absorbance run performed with multiple wavelengths), 
measurement mode, i.e., wavelength or radial, absorbance, intensity, 
fluorescence, interference, incidence, etc... All other information,
such as wavelength, temperature, omega^2-t, time, rpm, and comment 
string should be stored inside the file. there may be other parameters
for non-absorption optical systems that I don't know about. Tom?

I don't object towards a binary format for primary data acquisition,
as long as a sensible format is used that assures cross-platform
compatibility.

One thing that should also be kept in mind:

The current format repeats the comment string, the cell number, 
the measurement mode ("R", "W") and the wavelength in each individual
scan file. It is unlikely that any of those parameters would ever be
changed during a run. If we adopt a format that allows writing the 
data of each cell to a single file, I vote writing this information
only once to the file.

Any experiment done where those parameters are changed should be
saved under a new name.

> Where do we go from here?  I suggest that we ask Walt Stafford to create
> a second e-mail group address list that is specifically for AU software
> developers (perhaps we could call it AUSDF - Analytical
> Ultracentrifugation Software Developers' Forum).  Those who wish to can

Yes, please.

Regards, -Borries
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* Borries Demeler                                                             *
* The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio                *
* Dept. of Biochemistry, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78284-7760 *
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