Minutes of the Computing meeting held on 20 October 1999

Present: P.Mato,G.Corti, G.Gracia, J.Harvey, I.Videau, J.Closier, T.Cass, V.Breton, P.Binko, M.Witek,
              M.Needham, R.Van Der Eijk, S.Probst, P.Colrain, A.Jacholkowska, M.Frank, F.Ranjard

Minutes : Florence Ranjard

      1. Geant4 ISO/ANSI C++ migration strategy (G.Gracia)

  G.Gracia, G.Cosmo and G.Folger have studied the feasability of a migration to ISO/ANSI C++.
  The objectives were: migrate Geant4 code to be ISO/ANSI compliant. Implement a definitive solution
  flexible enough to allow backward compatibility with no-ISO/ANSI compliant client code, compilers.

  They came out with a migration strategy which could be adopted for the next release (the date is not
   yet decided, should be fixed during the next Technical Steering Board 2/11/99).

        2. Software distribution (J.Closier) (ppt)   

   SICB and GaudiSys packages are now avalaible from the web as gzip tar files. The page is accessible
   from the Computing page, the SICB page and the Gaudi page.

• They exist in two forms: source only and source+HP+Linux binaries.
• A unique tar file containing all packages for a given version of SICB or GaudiSys will be added.
• external packages not distributed by IT or with LHCb private version will be added in the list of tar files.
• There is not yet a NT distribution kit.

        3. Linux installation kit (J.Closier, T.Cass) (ppt)

    Joel presented the goal: set a pclhcbxxx machine as a lxplus machine.

• define a bootstrap file,
• define a LHCb profile
• but the main problem is the support for Hardware: so many different drivers (the Eathernet card).
• The PC desktop web page give the list of currently certified PCs avalaible from the PCshop,
  but it does not keep the list of those certified before and still in activity.
• there should be a review of the Linux policy in IT/PDP : interactive and batch installation should be compatible.
• PCs coming from the PC shop have received the CERN installation , but how to add the LHCb configuration.
• Lxplus and CERN installations are different (Red-Hat6.0, Red_Hat5.1), a CD is avalaible for Linux installation
  with Red-Hat6.0

          4. Activities around Gaudi at Clermont (V.Breton)

         Vincent presented the work done by Clermont around Gaudi:

• they tried to installed GaudiSys v2 on W95. They failed.
• then they worked at CERN on rsplus:
  • they developed a cluster algorithm for the calorimeters which works.
• At the same time they started to work with Geant4 on Linux at CERN:
  • they built a basic geometry and ran few examples.
  • they are waiting for the next Geant4 release ISO/ANSI compliant.
• Their conclusion is:
  • it takes time to get into Gaudi, but then it works fine.
  • it is difficult to install because it relies to much on CERN installation.
• John Harvey recommends to be carefull not to duplicate effort in the various laboratories :
  the remark was made about the work going on on Geant4.

          5. Gaudi System status report (P.Mato) (ppt)

          Pere presented the content of the next release v3:

• new functonnality:
  • improved version of JobOptions:
    • more user friendly
    • read an application configuration file
  • event model and I/O : several improvments of which
    • implementation of ntuples
    • use ROOT (new version) instead of RIO
  • histogramming package based on HTL
  • detector description
    • materials, geometry
    • persistency representation based in XML.
  • visualization
    • simple example with OPACS should be polished.
    • the WIRED line is pursued by Eric.
  • support for sharable libraries.
• deployment of CMT on NT.
• deployment of a bug tracking tool.
• improve the documentation.

           6. LHCb NT server status report (T.Cass)

          A LHCb NT server is now configured running Windows 2000.  Joel will try to find guinea pigs
         to play with it.

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next meeting : 27 October 1999 at 9:00 room B