read() accepts streams in addition to filenames

.gitignore

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*.gem

absee.gemspec

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.name        = 'absee'
-  s.version     = '1.0'
+  s.version     = '1.1'
   s.date        = '2012-11-14'
   s.summary     = ".ab1 reader / ABIF reader"
   s.description = ".ab1 reader / ABIF reader; extracts the peak indexes, called sequence, quality scores, and ACGT values from sequencing files"

lib/absee.rb

@@ -31,8 +31,15 @@ class ABSee
   #== Returns:
   #  Six arrays: trace data for A, C, G, T, called sequence, and peak indexes
   def read(filename)
-    #opens ab1 as a File object
-    abFile = open(filename)
+    if filename.instance_of?(StringIO) or filename.instance_of?(File)
+      abFile = filename
+    elsif filename.instance_of? String
+      #opens ab1 as a File object
+      abFile = open(filename)
+    else
+      raise "Don't know what to do with input type #{filename.class}"
+    end
+
     byteArray = ""
     #// here we read the first four bytes. It is important
     #// to remember that we do not seek back the file, just