hybl@mbph.UUCP (Albert Hybl Dept of Biophysics SM) (03/28/89)
In message <454@loligo.cc.fsu.edu> mccalpin@loligo.cc.fsu.edu (John McCalpin: Supercomputer Computations Research Institute) writes: >In article <587@mbph.UUCP> hybl@mbph.UUCP (Albert Hybl >Dept of Biophysics SM) writes: ... >>What does the ANSI X3.9-1978 standard say are the maximum allowable >>sizes for the character array AND(K)*1 and the character variable >>DNA*(K)? > >... What number do you suggest? My answer is: the maximum allowable sizes for the character array and the character variable must be the same and an EQUIVALENCE statement relating the array and the string should work over the whole range of the array variable. As we all know the X3.9-1978 standard specifies that a character array can be bound by a minimum and maximum bound; for example, CHARACTER*1 AND(-67:2125) ! conforms to the standard. CHARACTER*(-67:2125) DNA ! isn't legal so EQUIVALENCE (AND,DNA) ! can not be legal. I suggest that the standard allow both lower and upper bounds for a character variable and to allow the bounds to be negative. Let me try to explain why. The National Institutes of Health is about to spend a huge amount of money to map the human genome. The Department of Agriculture likewise wants to map the genomes of our grain crops. These projects will produce an enormous library of very valuable information. Consider the nucleotide sequence of the cucumber ascorbate oxidase cDNA reported in the Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86:1239-1243 (February 1989); the nucleotides are numbered from -67 to 2125. Starting with nucleotide 1 (not -67), the authors deduce the protein sequence of the ascorbate oxidase. The amino acid residues of the protein are numbered from -33 to 554; the first 33 residues (-33:-1) are part of a putative signal peptide that is later cleaved off to produce the native protein. Negative indexes are required for both the nucleotides of the cDNA and the deduced amino acid sequence of the protein. If fortran is to be used to help archive, maintain and retrieve all this genetic information, then the character variable must be made more useful and portable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Albert Hybl, PhD. Office UUCP: uunet!mimsy!mbph!hybl Department of Biophysics Home UUCP: uunet!mimsy!mbph!hybl!ah University of Maryland CoSy: ahybl School of Medicine Baltimore, MD 21201 Phone: (301) 328-7940 (Office) ----------------------------------------------------------------------