Parameters and Viewable Metrics Files: 454 Parser Format (.parse, .txt)

2.3.2

The “parser” format, developed at 454 Life Sciences Corporation, is a standard format used for all the software parameter files and for most of the metrics files. This is a text-based format that organizes the text in titled “groups” that contain either sub-groups or name/value pairs of strings. A parser file consists of one or more of the following:

•	A C-style comment, using /* and */ to delineate the comment text

•	A group, whose syntax is ‘groupname { … }’ and where one or more comments, sub-groups or name/value pairs can occur between the braces

•	A name/value pair, whose syntax is ‘name = “value”;’ and where the quotes around the value are optional, but the equals sign and semi-colon are required.

The parser file format is free-form, i.e. the syntactic elements can appear with any style of white space or line division. However, the output files generated by the 454 Sequencing System software use a standard indentation convention where the group names appear by themselves on a line with the braces below it; all the text between the braces is indented; and each name/value pair appears on a single line.

Several examples of parser files are shown in the Output sub-sections of the various applications’ descriptions.