+ /**
+ * Two features are considered equal if they have the same type, group,
+ * description, start, end, phase, strand, and (if present) 'Name', ID' and
+ * 'Parent' attributes.
+ *
+ * Note we need to check Parent to distinguish the same exon occurring in
+ * different transcripts (in Ensembl GFF). This allows assembly of transcript
+ * sequences from their component exon regions.
+ */
+ @Override
+ public boolean equals(Object o)
+ {
+ return equals(o, false);
+ }
+
+ /**
+ * Overloaded method allows the equality test to optionally ignore the
+ * 'Parent' attribute of a feature. This supports avoiding adding many
+ * superficially duplicate 'exon' or CDS features to genomic or protein
+ * sequence.
+ *
+ * @param o
+ * @param ignoreParent
+ * @return
+ */
+ public boolean equals(Object o, boolean ignoreParent)