public void loadFile(String path) throws IOException {
		String thisLine; // variable to read each line.
		BufferedReader myInput = null;
		try {
			FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(new File(path));
			myInput = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fin));
			// for each line until the end of the file
			int i=0;
			while ((thisLine = myInput.readLine()) != null) {
				// if the line is not a comment, is not empty or is not other
				// kind of metadata
				if (thisLine.isEmpty() == false &&
						thisLine.charAt(0) != '#' && thisLine.charAt(0) != '%'
						&& thisLine.charAt(0) != '@') {
					// split this line according to spaces and process the line

					addSequence(thisLine.split(" "));
				}
			}
		} catch (IOException e) {
                        System.out.println("The first argument must be the input file name");
			throw e;
		} finally {
			if (myInput != null) {
				myInput.close();
			}
		}
	}