External Libraries and tools
Temporary place holder page
This page gives access to information on tools, on which our software builds, and libraries, which it uses. All information is focussed on the use in ATLAS offline software.
General references
- External Software -- description, policies and future plans
- List of ATLAS "externals" -- directory listing
Packages "maintained" by ATLAS
- Athena/Gaudi -- Manual, version 8, March 2006 [pdf, 208 pages]
- JiveXML (Doxygen main page)
Converts event data into XML files, which are used by the Atlantis event display.
Libraries "maintained" by LCG
- LCG external software service (SPI)
- LCG s/w packages -- access to information on configurations, i.e. details on LCG releases
- Versions of packages -- per platform and LCG release
More details on products
- Reflex -- provides reflection information about C++ types. See also TPPolymorphicConverter.h
Open source products and possible risks
ATLAS has decided to extensively use open source software products, considering their benefits and drawbacks:
- + availability, reliability, good level of support, good level of specification
- + very large community of users
- - no strict guarantee of future availability
- Generally, the products selected by Atlas are considered as de-facto standards in either the HEP community or even the world-wide computing community.
- Most open source products offer a very good level of interaction between their developer's community and the users.
- Commercial products have not proven to always guarantee a better stability on long term scales, nor a good level of communication with the provider.
See also
- LCG Project - Applications Area
- Applications Area meetings - Regular discussions of LCG tools and libraries
- Links to manuals of GNU tools -- various formats are available
- Migration to new Gaudi v19 and LCG Externals, Feb 2007