 Support for external libraries (I

Support for external libraries (I.Gaines)

Masa has a head start on this

Would like to identify the problems that cause us to have to change the libs.

Masa will document a how to. (much appreciated)

Specific requirements?

Code checker to find what is impossible for ROOT

Maybe the Alice code checker could be used.

Conclusion: there will be more documentation including a how to from MASA. Plus a root specific doc. In addition we will investigate a tool as mention above.

Would like persistence of external classes. Maybe we can use our self-describing object format. We could also use the CINT dictionary to get the description of the class.

Organized documentation for developer (D.Buskulic)

Printed book: how to navigate

CERN School ROOT class
Evolving
Vision statement
DB: has written a manual for Vega that could be a starting point.
Quick reference lookup (not by name the class, but by what is desired to do) Maybe more of a user’s guide than a reference manual.
All member functions should be under one class (i.e. even the inherited ones)
Problem - no one to do it.
Collaborate effort? Can we have an outline where people can submit a chapter at a time?
Suggestion: generating help files that would be distributed with the root deliverable.
We want to find how the system works, not necessary on a class level.

I/O in general

Trees

Automatic Schema evolution (important and urgent)

Reading files with absolete objects

Do we want to have it all automatic? Or will this cause more problems with "keeping up" with the class description.

There should be a very clear, explicit switch to turn this on or off.

We still want to be able to read in files without having the class description.

Change in semantics of the class will cause people to change their code. Changing the syntax will not.

Summary:

Rene is looking into this, and wants to discuss with the STAR people combined with the streamer info. Protoype and discuss before announcing it.

GUI: NT

Using ROOT on NT – cross platform?

Native ?

Consistent look and feel?

Same functionality on different platforms.

Got to do it!

Looking for manpower.

Who are the NT users? They are not represented here, and it is difficult to identify them.

Summary:

Waiting for a volunteer (Peter Ph. –yea !)

Other GUI issues:

GUI Builder

It is either extremely good or not at all.

Macro solution

Need more documentation (of course)

Improvement in layout manager

However, at this time a layout manager can be very customized.

CINT

CINT: More info about segfault.
CINT: need it closer to the C++ standard

Templates

Exception handling in general, not only CINT but ROOT

Suggestion by Rene: organize a discussion on how we want to see Exception handling implemented.

Threads
From the experience (at GSI) we could use it as an example to help people making their app thread save.
Could you document what you have done?
Docs are available.

What are the most urgent issues:

SUMMARY:

THANKS ROOT TEAM!!

THANKS TO FREDERICO and ORGANIZERS!!