ROOT 5.2

The ROOT system provides a set of OO frameworks with all the functionality needed to handle and analyze large amounts of data in a very efficient way. Having the data defined as a set of objects, specialized storage methods are used to get direct access to the separate attributes of the selected objects, without having to touch the bulk of the data. Included are histograming methods in an arbitrary number of dimensions, curve fitting, function evaluation, minimization, graphics and visualization classes to allow the easy setup of an analysis system that can query and process the data interactively or in batch mode, as well as a general parallel processing framework, PROOF, that can considerably speed up an analysis.
Below, you can find a quick overview of the ROOT framework ("Gentle introduction"), which is summarized here:
Save data. You can save your data (and any C object) in a compressed binary form in a ROOT file. The object format is also saved in the same file. ROOT provides a data structure that is extremely powerful for fast access of huge amounts of data - orders of magnitude faster than any database.
Access data. Data saved into one or several ROOT files can be accessed from your PC, from the web and from large-scale file delivery systems used e.g. in the GRID. ROOT trees spread over several files can be chained and accessed as a unique object, allowing for loops over huge amounts of data.
Process data. Powerful mathematical and statistical tools are provided to operate on your data. The full power of a C application and of parallel processing is available for any kind of data manipulation. Data can also be generated following any statistical distribution, making it possible to simulate complex systems.
Show results. Results are best shown with histograms, scatter plots, fitting functions, etc. ROOT graphics may be adjusted real-time by few mouse clicks. High-quality plots can be saved in PDF or other format.
Interactive or built application. You can use the CINT C interpreter or Python for your interactive sessions and to write macros, or compile your program to run at full speed. In both cases, you can also create a GUI.