CIF parser

[Andrew Dalke]

Horst Gassner wrote:
>Does anyone know if there is a parser for the CIF (Crystallographic
>Information File) format? I only found parsers written in C language but
>none written in Python.
>
>The following URL is the one where I have looked for a parser:
>http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/cif/home.html

I haven't come across any.  That link you mentions points to HICCuP from
CCDC which requires Python, but I can't find documentation for it and
I don't like the license enough to download the package.

Then again, I've had a long dislike of CIF - more specifically, mmCIF -
so it would't take much for me to keep from downloading a CIF package.
(Eg, the CIF format is protected by patent law (!), is strongly FORTRAN
biased and doesn't really have namespaces.)  Luckily, I haven't come
across anyone in molecular modelling who's actually used the format,
even though mmCIF's been out for 6 years or so.

                    Andrew
                    dalke at acm.org