Hi, netters:
I am surprised that the only responses to the above question are
only teasings and jokings (perhaps I have missed the real ones).
Here I list some software features that I would like to see for
biologists:
1. The ability to browse, search biological knowledge: This sounds
like a database function with real data! Of course, the data must
include all relevent pictures and graphs.
2. The ability to cut and paste the searched information into a document:
This seems to be a word processing function with the power of a
graphics program.
3. The ability to analyze sequence information in a seemingless way:
I hope this capability is more flexible and powerful than the current
GCG programs. The sequence analysis should accompany a real database
with good compression algorithm that saves disk space. This database
should be easy to update from any current journals. The outputs
must be compatible with other presentation softwares that allow flexible
personalized presentation.
The ability of sequence analysis should allow the biologists to integrate
the sequence data to compile them into a complete genome (if data are
close to complete), and look for any potential exons, splice sites,
introns, reading frames, promoters, enhancers, and so on. This set of
features should be in one package, instead of asking the user to search for
individual programs to perform small tasks.
4. There are many more features that can be incorporated into the biologists'
softwares, such as geographic distribution of bioorganisms, genetic aspects,
evolutionary analysis, statistical analysis, chemical modeling, enzyme kinetics,
... Too numerous to list here.
Let's hope that the future softwares will really suit biologists' needs. This
requires the collaboration of biologists and software programmers.
Song-Muh Jong
sjj at icbr.ifas.ufl.edu
