Introduction
This page is intended for the developers and contains an assortment
of status information about the VMC project at STAR. It will be
"under construction" for the rest of its life.
VMC Event
A pic illustrating that the VMC simulation in its current
state actually does something: creates a default TPC geometry and
produces hits, which can then be displayed.
VMC Classes
All of the below is work in initial stages, hence the material is incomplete, raw and
subject to changes and deletions
Classes currently used:
- StarConfiguration - steering of the general configuration for the app. Ultimately, we want to parse a XML config file
that will define what, under what conditions and exatcly how needs to be done
- StarDetector - subclass of StarModule. A sensitive module that produces hits
- StarDetectorConstruction - steering of the geometry creation
- StarGenerator - an abstract class encapsulating event generators and readers
- StarHit - a hit object as detail elsewhere
- StarKineGenerator - a subclass of the StarGenerator. Shoots kinematic (phase space) tracks with
user-specified parameters
- StarMaterial - a utility class that facilitates the creation of, automatic numbering, and refererencing by name, of materials
- StarMCApplication - the application class itself, which includes all kinds of steering
- StarMedium - a utility class that facilitates the creation of, automatic numbering, and refererencing by name, of media
- StarModule - a "building block" of the apparatus. May or may not contains a sensitive detector
- StarParticle - we have our own particles in STAR
- StarRndm - a single point for implementing and interfacing random number generators of varying sophistication
- StarRootManager - manages Root i/o
- StarRotation - a utility class that facilitates the creation of, automatic numbering, and refererencing by name, of rotation
matrices
- StarStack - the core class that is somewhat equivalent to the Geant particle stack
- StarTpc - a subclass of StarDetector, and does not belong with core classes
- StarVolume - a utility class that facilitates the creation of, automatic numbering, and refererencing by name, of materials
Classes that need review, developement
or to be abandoned:
- StarCaveGeometry
- StarChamberParametrization
- StarGeometry
- StarTpcGeometry
General Code Organization
The top level directory of the project is called StarVMC. Under it,
we have the following:
- vmcApp - a directory that contains all the core classes
- modules - a directory that contains the default geometries and other detector specific data, which
does not belong in the core app
- star - the place where Cint macros live. We inherited this way of driving the sim
from the initial VMC usage example, and will keep it like this for a while
In addition, there is the archi-important component which is the TGeant3
class, and it is located elsewhere. It is currently debated whether we should
branch off our own version which is better structured than what's available
from Alice (and is not Alice-ized as appears to be the case), or still
try to rely on perioduc updates from the central CERN/Alice cvs repository.
It should also be noted that the Alice version is fused with a particular
(tweaked) version of Geant 3, which has a huge headache potential, as we
might be using some other Geant 3 in other related software.
The exact location of these components needs to be decided.
|