from Dave Matthews, 11/95
 
 
                           SYNTAX AND CONVENTIONS
 
 The following are some ACEDB syntax rules and general GrainGenes
 conventions for data files.  This is not a complete list of either, and
 more can be inferred by looking at the examples given in the Template files
 in this directory.
 
 ACEDB syntax:
 
 - Values that are only one word need not be enclosed in Double-quotes (").
   Numeric values _must_ not be enclosed in quotes.
 
 - Values may be continued on multiple lines by ending each line with " \",
   or may be entered as a single very long line.
 
 - Values should not contain Tab, Double-quote, non-ASCII characters, or two
   adjacent Slashes (//).  (In pedigrees, change // to /2/.)
 
 - If a field has no value, omit the entire line, label and all.
 
 - If a field has multiple values, enter each on a separate line, preceded by
   the label.
 
 - Some fields may contain multiple subfields.  For example, in the Gene class
   the Other_name field contains two subfields, the name of a Gene followed
   by a Reference.  In these cases, 
   - The second subfield may be left blank.
   - If there are multiple values of the second subfield for the same value
     of the first subfield, enter each on a separate line.
   Example:
        Gene : "sue"
        Other_name joe GEN-3-343
        Other_name joe TAG-8-122
        Other_name ann
 
 - The order in which the fields are entered doesn't matter.
 
 
 GrainGenes conventions:
 
 - Superscripted strings are enclosed in carets (^), "E = mc^2^"
 
 - Subscripted strings are enclosed in backquotes (`), "CO`2`"
 
 - Greek letters are spelled out, "alpha", "beta" etc.  They are separated
   from any immediately adjacent Roman letters with a "_" character.  Thus
   Probe "lambda_Amy33", and Loci "XRbp_alpha-2", "X_alpha-Amy-5A".
 
 - Special characters from various European character sets should be
   translated to the US/English set.
 
 - The names of objects (Genes, Probes, Germplasms etc.) should not 
   contain "*" or "?", because these characters have special meaning
   when querying.  "()" and other brackets can also cause problems.