Python Programming for Biology: Bioinformatics and Beyond

1

 In  order  to  unify  data  types  and  object  classes,  which  until  Python  2.2  had  remained

separate.

2

This is a confusing name since it is a class, and not an object, which is an instance of a

class.

3

 In  Java,  as  a  comparison,  this  handle  is  not  included  in  the  definition  of  the  function,

rather it is implicitly made available via the ‘this’ variable.

4

 Note  that  this  does  not  work  very  well  if  you  have  non-standard  amino  acids  in  your

protein.

5

OK, in reality isotope abundances and protonation states will affect the mass a bit, but

we’ll ignore that sort of thing here.

6

Anything in Python that begins and ends with a double underscore is ‘magic’ relating to

the internal workings.

7

Remember that double underscores indicates internal Python workings or ‘magic’.

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