'Skips any leading whitespace in the model description.
Args:
index:      Position in model_str to start parsing
Returns:
end index in model_str of whitespace.'

def _SkipWhitespace(self, index):

    pattern = re.compile('([    \\t\\n]+)')
    m = pattern.match(self.model_str, index)
    if (m is None):
        return index
    return m.end()
