Computing Seminar

Anaphe - OO Libraries for Data Analysis using C++ and Python

Andreas Pfeiffer/IT

Abstract

The Anaphe project is an ongoing effort to provide an Object Oriented software environment for future HENP experiments. A range of commercial and public domain libraries is used to cover basic functionalities; on top of these libraries a set of HENP-specific C++ class libraries for histogram management, fitting and ntuple-like data analysis has been developed.

In close collaboration with the experiments a new modular data analysis tool/toolkit is being developed. Based on AIDA compliant Abstract Interfaces (wherever they are available), a set of "wrappers" makes the functionality of the Anaphe libraries available. In order to comply with the user requirements for a command-line driven tool, we have chosen to use a scripting language (Python) as the front-end.

The loose coupling provided by the consequent use of Abstract Interfaces for each component in combination with the use of shared libraries for their implementation allows the integration into modern scripting languages. This integration is simplified even further using a specialised toolkit (SWIG) to create "shadow classes" for the Python language, which map the definitions of the Abstract Interfaces almost at a one-to-one level.

The talk will give an overview of the architecture and design choices and will present the current status and future developments of the project.

About the speaker: Andreas Pfeiffer is the section leader of the AL section of API group in IT division. He is responsible for the Anaphe project.