[bip] formats in biology

[Titus Brown]

On Thu, Aug 02, 2007 at 04:14:43PM +0100, Noel O'Boyle wrote:
-> Perhaps the solution is to provide a validator like the w3c did/do for
-> (x)html. And name and shame all versions of programs that fail it. In
-> this case the spec would be defined by the validator. This is the only
-> proactive way I can think of to attempt to standardise a de facto file
-> format.

While I have no particular insight into the parser conundrum, I would
just like to mention that holding up XML, HTML, or (X)HTML as a success
for format validation is ... ironic, given the huge numbers of
non-compliant Web pages that exist.  XML is an even bigger disaster
(IMO), demonstrating that no matter how many layers of specification
crud you slather on, meaning and format are two different things.

Perhaps we should form a parser subcommittee of this mailing list so
that everyone else can get back to biology ;).

But seriously, I think we need to follow Postel's Law:

	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_Principle

"""
Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send
"""

cheers,
--titus