[BioC] Re: offer from I Neuhaus to create a BMS response; keep in core, please

[Isaac Neuhaus]

Todd Richmond wrote:

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: bioconductor-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>[mailto:bioconductor-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch]On Behalf Of Rafael A.
>>Irizarry
>>Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 8:14 AM
>>To: bioconductor at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>
>>On Tue, 1 Jul 2003, Robert Gentleman wrote:
>>
>><SNIP>
>>    
>>
>>>Vis a vis the phone call, it was about 1 hour long, it was slightly
>>>focussed on marketing hype on their side and some substantial,
>>>although peculiar concerns came out. One of the major concerns that
>>>they have is that if they make their formats public then anyone can
>>>create a "CEL" file of the right format and make it look very much
>>>like one that they generated. They believe that this would lead to
>>>substantial confusion.
>>>      
>>>
>
>That doesn't make a lot of sense. If they are concerned about the
>authenticity of "CEL" files can't they just use a digital signature, or some
>sort of checksum scheme for verification? 
>
Am I missing something? Do they want to patent their own CEL format? 
(sorry just being facetious)

>I can't imagine that a binary
>format is going to make life easier for anyone. If they are concerned about
>size, there are standard compression libraries that you can use to
>compress/uncompress your data files on-the-fly as you save/load.
>
I disagree. A binary file could facilitate getting chunks of data using 
random access without having to go through the whole file. For example, 
you can imagine at some point creating you own 'probe sets' with 
features that are different than those mapped by Affy. However the 
structure of the file MUST be publicly available.

I

>
>Todd
>
>--
>Todd Richmond
>Manager of Research Informatics
>NimbleGen Systems, Inc
>One Science Court
>Madison, WI 53711
>Ph: 1-608-218-7651
>
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