Long sequences run into RecursionError

[bertsky]

Since backtraceFrom is implemented by recursion (instead of iteration), calling the aligner on "long" sequences (more than 1000 items) results in a RecursionError with Python defaults. Extending stack depth limit may cause other serious issues.

[hadaev8]

Same here

[hadaev8]

@bertsky may you advise similar but better package?

[bertsky]

@hadaev8 I'll try. Having tested several libraries available on PyPI (when searching with align or edit distance keywords) I finally reverted to the standard difflib.SequenceMatcher (with isjunk=None, autojunk=False) – although it is not optimising general global alignment (Needleman-Wunsch) but minimal visual difference (Ratcliff-Obershelp) – for the following reasons:

• python-alignment (this repo): issues #9, #10 and #11
• edlib: only ASCII
• edit_distance: heap overflow
• weighted-levenshtein: only ASCII
• python-Levenshtein: I don't remember, sorry!
• others: not for general strings (but DNA sequences or scalars etc)

Generally, you want more than just correctness:

• robustness:
  • possibility for bailout before entering extremely costly computations (memory or time)
  • heap and stack restrictions
• efficiency: general complexity is O(n*m) (or even cubic when weighted), but:
  • there is a large difference in the linar factor (esp. between pure Python and good C implementations),
  • optimisation for benign cases is possible and makes a huge difference for average performance
  • you don't always need to enumerate all possible alignments, only one of minimal distance (but possibly with assumptions on ordering)
• weighting etc

[hadaev8]

@bertsky Thanks