[Omaha.pm] Fwd: [ensembl-dev] The future of EnsJ

[Jay Hannah]

Ensembl is a massive European open-source bioinformatics project:

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

Looks like their Java in interface is being shut down.

Power to the Perlers!

j


Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Glenn Proctor" <glenn at ebi.ac.uk>
> Date: September 29, 2006 2:02:36 AM CDT
> To: ensembl-dev at ebi.ac.uk
> Subject: [ensembl-dev] The future of EnsJ
> Reply-To: ensembl-dev at ebi.ac.uk
>
> Dear Ensembl Developers
>
> Some of you may recall that I announced that we are scaling down our
> ability to continue to develop and support the Ensj, the Java API  
> to Ensembl.
>
> While several people kindly volunteered to help maintain parts of  
> Ensj,
> no-one was able to commit to the kind of effort that would maintain  
> it as
> a viable long-term solution.
>
> So it is with a great deal of regret that I have to announce that  
> Ensj will
> no longer be publically available as of the December release of  
> Ensembl,
> release 42.
>
> We will do our best to support it until then, however internally we  
> need to
> focus our efforts on the Perl API and tools, so any Ensj-support  
> will be
> provided on a best-efforts basis only.
>
> We have taken the decision to withdraw Ensj completely rather than  
> keeping
> it in hibernation as the latter option would quickly result in  
> increasing
> incompatibilities between Ensj and future changes to the Ensembl  
> schema,
> which would cause headaches for everyone involved.
>
> We are doing this with great regret. It has not been an easy  
> decision to make.
>
> I would like to extend my thanks to Craig Melsopp, the lead  
> developer of
> Ensj, as well as to all of you who have used, supported and  
> contributed to
> it over the last few years.
>
> The Ensembl Perl API will be unaffected by these changes, and we have
> a complete commitment to its maintenance as this is the main access
> route in-house. I would encourage those of you who are still using  
> Ensj to
> consider switching to the Perl API - you will find that much of the  
> Perl API
> structure is similar to what you're used to with Ensj.
>
> Information, documentation, and a tutorial on the Perl API can be  
> found at
>
> http://www.ensembl.org/info/software/core/index.html
>
> Regards
>
> Glenn Proctor
> Core team leader
> Ensembl