=head1 NAME

gene module - part of the Wise2 package

=head1 SYNOPSIS

This module contains the following objects

=over

=item Gene


=back

=head1 DESCRIPTION

=head2 Object Gene

=over

=item start

 Type [int] Scalar No documentation

=item end

 Type [int] Scalar No documentation

=item parent

 Type [GenomicRegion *] Scalar  may not be here

=item genomic

 Type [Genomic *] Scalar  may not be here!

=item transcript

 Type [Transcript **] List No documentation

=item name

 Type [char *] Scalar  ugly . Need a better system

=item bits

 Type [double] Scalar  ditto...

=item seqname

 Type [char *] Scalar  very bad! this is for keeping track of what sequence was used to make the gene

=item ispseudo

 Type [boolean] Scalar  is a pseudogene or not



=back

Gene is the datastructure which represents a single
gene. At the moment this is considered to be a series
of transcripts (the first transcript being "canonical")
which are made from a certain start/stop region in
genomic DNA.

The gene datastructure does not necessarily contain
any DNA sequence. When someone askes for the gene sequence,
via get_Genomic_from_Gene(), it first sees if there
is anything in the Genomic * 'cache'. If this is null,
it then looks at parent (the genomic region), and if
that is null, complains and returns null. Otherwise it
truncates its parent's dna in the correct way, places
the data structure into the genomic * cache, and returns
it.

The name, bits and seqname have put into this datastructure
for convience of carrying around this information into some
of the gene prediction output formats. Probabaly
  o they should be in transcript, not gene
  o they shouldn't be here at all.

<sigh>



=head2 Member functions of Gene

=over

=item get_Genomic_from_Gene

&Wise2::Gene::get_Genomic_from_Gene(gene)

  Gives back a Genomic sequence type
  from a gene.



  Argument gene         [READ ] gene to get Genomic from [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] Genomic DNA data structure [Genomic *]


=item show_pretty_Gene

&Wise2::Gene::show_pretty_Gene(ge,show_supporting,ofp)

  Shows a gene in the biologically accepted form



  Argument ge           [UNKN ] Undocumented argument [Gene *]
  Argument show_supporting [UNKN ] Undocumented argument [boolean]
  Argument ofp          [UNKN ] Undocumented argument [FILE *]
  Return [UNKN ] Undocumented return value [void]


=item hard_link_Gene

&Wise2::Gene::hard_link_Gene(obj)

  Bumps up the reference count of the object
  Meaning that multiple pointers can 'own' it



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object to be hard linked [Gene *]
  Return [UNKN ] Undocumented return value [Gene *]


=item Gene_alloc_std

&Wise2::Gene::Gene_alloc_std(void)

  Equivalent to Gene_alloc_len(GeneLISTLENGTH)



  Return [UNKN ] Undocumented return value [Gene *]


=item set_start

&Wise2::Gene::set_start(obj,start)

  Replace member variable start
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Argument start        [OWNER] New value of the variable [int]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable start [boolean]


=item start

&Wise2::Gene::start(obj)

  Access member variable start
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable start [int]


=item set_end

&Wise2::Gene::set_end(obj,end)

  Replace member variable end
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Argument end          [OWNER] New value of the variable [int]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable end [boolean]


=item end

&Wise2::Gene::end(obj)

  Access member variable end
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable end [int]


=item set_parent

&Wise2::Gene::set_parent(obj,parent)

  Replace member variable parent
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Argument parent       [OWNER] New value of the variable [GenomicRegion *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable parent [boolean]


=item parent

&Wise2::Gene::parent(obj)

  Access member variable parent
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable parent [GenomicRegion *]


=item set_genomic

&Wise2::Gene::set_genomic(obj,genomic)

  Replace member variable genomic
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Argument genomic      [OWNER] New value of the variable [Genomic *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable genomic [boolean]


=item genomic

&Wise2::Gene::genomic(obj)

  Access member variable genomic
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable genomic [Genomic *]


=item transcript

&Wise2::Gene::transcript(obj,i)

  Access members stored in the transcript list
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the list [Gene *]
  Argument i            [UNKN ] Position in the list [int]
  Return [SOFT ] Element of the list [Transcript *]


=item length_transcript

&Wise2::Gene::length_transcript(obj)

  discover the length of the list
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the list [Gene *]
  Return [UNKN ] length of the list [int]


=item flush_transcript

&Wise2::Gene::flush_transcript(obj)

  Frees the list elements, sets length to 0
  If you want to save some elements, use hard_link_xxx
  to protect them from being actually destroyed in the free



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object which contains the list  [Gene *]
  Return [UNKN ] Undocumented return value [int]


=item add_transcript

&Wise2::Gene::add_transcript(obj,add)

  Adds another object to the list. It will expand the list if necessary



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object which contains the list [Gene *]
  Argument add          [OWNER] Object to add to the list [Transcript *]
  Return [UNKN ] Undocumented return value [boolean]


=item set_name

&Wise2::Gene::set_name(obj,name)

  Replace member variable name
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Argument name         [OWNER] New value of the variable [char *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable name [boolean]


=item name

&Wise2::Gene::name(obj)

  Access member variable name
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable name [char *]


=item set_bits

&Wise2::Gene::set_bits(obj,bits)

  Replace member variable bits
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Argument bits         [OWNER] New value of the variable [double]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable bits [boolean]


=item bits

&Wise2::Gene::bits(obj)

  Access member variable bits
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable bits [double]


=item set_seqname

&Wise2::Gene::set_seqname(obj,seqname)

  Replace member variable seqname
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Argument seqname      [OWNER] New value of the variable [char *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable seqname [boolean]


=item seqname

&Wise2::Gene::seqname(obj)

  Access member variable seqname
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable seqname [char *]


=item set_ispseudo

&Wise2::Gene::set_ispseudo(obj,ispseudo)

  Replace member variable ispseudo
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Argument ispseudo     [OWNER] New value of the variable [boolean]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable ispseudo [boolean]


=item ispseudo

&Wise2::Gene::ispseudo(obj)

  Access member variable ispseudo
  For use principly by API functions



  Argument obj          [UNKN ] Object holding the variable [Gene *]
  Return [SOFT ] member variable ispseudo [boolean]


=back