title: The Bioinformatics Template Library--generic components for biocomputing.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The efficiency of bioinformatics programmers can be greatly increased through the provision of ready-made software components that can be rapidly combined, with additional bespoke components where necessary, to create finished programs. The new standard for C++ includes an efficient and easy to use library of generic algorithms and data-structures, designed to facilitate low-level component programming. The extension of this library to include functionality that is specifically useful in compute-intensive tasks in bioinformatics and molecular modelling could provide an effective standard for the design of reusable software components within the biocomputing community.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A novel application of generic programming techniques in the form of a library of C++ components called the Bioinformatics Template Library (BTL) is presented. This library will facilitate the rapid development of efficient programs by providing efficient code for many algorithms and data-structures that are commonly used in biocomputing, in a generic form that allows them to be flexibly combined with application specific object-oriented class libraries.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The BTL is available free of charge from our web site http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/~classlib/ and the EMBL file server http://www.embl-ebi.ac.uk/FTP/index.html
authors.affiliation: School of Crystallography, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Pitt
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steven
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sweeney
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Bleasby
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Moss
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D019295:Computational Biology; D007990:Libraries; D011381:Programming Languages; D012984:Software