nomcompile3: Build a set of nomenclature files |  |
nomcompile3: Build a set of nomenclature files | |
The program described herein is part of a system for representing bird taxonomy as computer files. For the overall system documentation, see A system for representing bird taxonomy.
In particular, operation of the nomcompile3 program is described in a section of the above document: Building the standard product files. To recap, the program reads and checks a set of three files that describe a particular checklist, and writes a number of product files used elsewhere in the general system.
The input files are:
The ranks file defines the taxonomic
ranks of interest.
The .std or standard forms file
defines what taxa are considered standard in the
arrangement.
The .alt or alternate forms file
enumerates non-standard names and defines each name's
relationship to the standard names in that arrangement.
If no errors are detected, nomcompile3 writes four product files.
The .tre file is a flat file
with one line for each standard taxon.
The .ab6 file is a flat file
with one line for each six-letter abbreviation defined
in the arrangement.
The .col file is a flat file
with one line for each pair of six-letter abbreviations
such that the first is a proscribed collision form and
the second is one of the valid alternatives.
The .xml file is a complete
description of all aspects of the
arrangement—ranks, standard forms, alternate
names, abbreviations, and collisions—that forms
the input to a set of Python-language modules used in
processing bird data.
All these files, the input files and the output files,
share the same base file name, which is specified as a
command line argument. The naming convention: base name
“aou7” is the Seventh Edition
of the AOU Check-List; base name
“aou749” is the arrangement
published as the Forty-ninth
Supplement; and so forth as new Supplement numbers are issued.
So, for the Forty-ninth Supplement, nomcompile3 would read input files ranks, aou749.std, and
aou749.alt, and write aou749.xml, aou749.tre,
aou749.ab6, and aou749.col.