def smdb_annot(orflist=None, input_fname='registry.genenames.tab', output_fname='yeast.annot'):

    """Reads registry.genenames.tab from the Stanford yeast
    microarray database.

    Available from:
    ftp://genome-ftp.stanford.edu/pub/yeast/data_download/gene_registry/registry.genenames.tab
    
    input: orf -- list of orfs (open reading frames)
           file -- (optional) file to fetch info from
           
    registry.genames contains:

    0 = Locus name 
    1 = Other name
    2 = Description 
    3 = Gene product
    4 = Phenotype
    5 = ORF name
    6 = SGDID
    
    NB! Other name, Gene product and Phenotype may have more
    than one mapping. These are separated by |

    Output: writes an annotation file

    """
    outfile = open(output_fname, 'w')
    header = "Orf\tLocus_id\tOther_name\tDescription\tGene_product\tPhenotype\tSGD_ID\n"
    outfile.write(header)
    text = open(input_fname, 'r').read().splitlines()
    for line in text:
        els = line.split('\t')
        orf_name = els.pop(5)
        if orf_name!='': # we dont care about non-named orfs
            if orflist and orf_name not in orflist:
                break
            for e in els:
                if e !='':
                    outfile.write(str(e) + "\t")
                else:
                    outfile.write("NA")
            f.write("\n")