The art framework

Abstract

Future "Intensity Frontier" experiments at Fermilab are likely to be conducted by smaller collaborations, with fewer scientists, than is the case for recent "Energy Frontier" experiments. art is a C++ event-processing framework designed with the needs of such experiments in mind. An evolution from the framework of the CMS experiment, art was designed and implemented to be usable by multiple experiments without imposing undue maintenance effort requirements on either the art developers or experiments using it. We describe the key requirements and features of art and the rationale behind evolutionary changes, additions and simplifications with respect to the CMS framework. In addition, our package distribution system and our collaborative model with respect to the multiple experiments using art helps keep the maintenance burden low. We also describe in-progress and future enhancements to the framework, including strategies we are using to allow multi-threaded use of the art framework in today's multi- and many-core environments.