ALPHA++ Documentation

Last release: 5.1 - SLC3 release!

ALPHA++ project description

ALPHA++ Lite is a portable version of ALPHA++, that only relies on ROOT (and Qt for the AlVisu part). It is able to read converted databases in the ROOT format, available on /castor/cern.ch/aleph/root.

The main goals of the ALPHA++ project are

convert the ALEPH data (preferably LEP2 data) from the BOS bank style into persistent objects and write them to an Objectivity/Db database (type "onlineDoc" on hpplus to get online help about the object database)
rewrite a miniversion of the ALEPH analysis package ALPHA in an object oriented computing language (C++), based on the Objectivity database
compare standard and OO performance with regard to efficient access of the data
test the software engineered by the RD45 and the LHC++ projects, which evaluate data storage and analysis option for the LHC experiments. Here you have links to the LHC++ manual and to a seminar given by Dirk Duellmann on Object databases
Provide some input/experience for the LEP archive project
Give an opportunity to learn OO programming and design
The requirements list .

Getting started

ALPHA++ Lite is distributed as a single compressed tar file, containing the code for the librairies, some examples of applications, and the AlVisu graphical tool.

In order to compile all the code, you must configure properly ROOT and QT. A bash script for LXPLUS is provied as example. On Lxplus, just source it (for bash).

The code is then compiled by typing make qmake;make . Note that a change of version of Qt may invalidate the AlVisu Makefile. You must then re-issue make qmake. It is otherwise not needed.

First check the alpha++.input file to comment the SETY line (only needed when AlVisu is used). You can see the two ROOT files accessed by default on CASTOR. Staging these files may take some time at the beginning of the execution.You can then run the default example (acoplanar) by typing Linux/acoplanar -l0.

Documentation
ALPHA++ User Guide (version 0.1) [PS] [pdf]
Other userguide-like documents can be found on the old alpha++ page.
ALPHA++ is using: ROOT and Qt .

Releases

Release 5.1 : First official Alpha++ Lite version. Tested on SLC3. (download)

Graphical Tool

AlVisu : A simple 3D viewer for ALEPH events based on ALPHA++.

Note that the installation and configuration instructions are much more simple when AlVisu is installed as part of ALPHA++ Lite, as discribed before. Once make has been issued, AlVisu can be run simply by typing Linux/AlVisu.

Last modified on Tue 05 September 2005 by C.Delaere