[Matrix-SIG] Re: a full-blown interactive data analysis environment

[Ryszard Czerminski]

On Tue, 9 Feb 1999, Joe Harrington wrote:

> I hope this better explains what I'm getting at.  If you have more
> questions and haven't done so already, please take the time to read
> our article and visit the Interactive Data Analysis Environments web
> site, if you haven't:
> 
> http://oobleck.tn.cornell.edu/jh/ast/papers/idae96.ps
> http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/barrett/IDAE/table.1.html

Yes, these two pages directly address my question - thanks.

In your comparison table you do not mention ROOT.
I have learned about existence of this package few month ago
from the article in Linux Journal. I have downloaded it and 
played with it somewhat and I found it to be very impresive
system. It is an open source project and it might provide
a lot of functionality we are looking for.
It is using C++ interpreter as the the command language.

I would be very much interested in opinions of others on this list.

Ryszard

From: http://root.cern.ch/root/Mission.html

Currently the emphasis of ROOT is on the data analysis domain but thanks
to the approach of
loosely coupled object-oriented frameworks the system can easily be
extended to other domains. 

We believe that ROOT is an ideal environment to introduce physicists
quickly to the new world of
Objects and C++. 

ROOT: Executive Summary

The ROOT system provides a set of OO frameworks with all the functionality
needed to handle
and analyse large amounts of data in a very efficient way. Having the data
defined as a set of
objects, specialised storage methods are used to get direct access to the
separate attributes of the
selected objects, without having to touch the bulk of the data. Included
are histograming methods
in 1, 2 and 3 dimensions, curve fitting, function evaluation,
minimisation, graphics and
visualization classes to allow the easy setup of an analysis system that
can query and process the
data interactively or in batch mode. 

Thanks to the builtin CINT C++ interpreter the command language, the
scripting, or macro,
language and the programming language are all C++. The interpreter allows
for fast prototyping of
the macros since it removes the time consuming compile/link cycle. It also
provides a good
environment to learn C++. If more performance is needed the interactively
developed macros can
be compiled using a C++ compiler.

The system has been designed in such a way that it can query its databases
in parallel on MPP
machines or on clusters of workstations or high-end PC's. ROOT is an open
system that can be
dynamically extended by linking external libraries. This makes ROOT a
premier platform on
which to build data acquisition, simulation and data analysis systems.

Ryszard Czerminski         phone : (617)354-3124 x 10
Moldyn, Inc.               fax   : (617)491-4522
955 Massachusetts Avenue   e-mail: ryszard@moldyn.com
Cambridge MA, 02139-3180   or      ryszard@photon.com