[Halld-offline] Offline Software Meeting Minutes, july 24, 2018

[Mark Ito]

Folks,

Please find the minutes below and here 
<https://halldweb.jlab.org/wiki/index.php/GlueX_Offline_Meeting,_July_24,_2018#Minutes>.

   -- Mark

__________________________________________


  Minutes, GlueX Offline Meeting, July 24, 2018


Present:

  * *FIU: * Mahmoud Kamel
  * *FSU: * Sean Dobbs
  * *JLab: * Alex Austregesilo, Thomas Britton, Mark Ito (chair), David
    Lawrence, Simon Taylor, Beni Zihlmann
  * *UConn: * Richard Jones
  * *W&M: * Justin Stevens
  * *Yerevan: * Hrach Marukyan

There is a recording of this meeting <https://bluejeans.com/s/bWu66/> on 
the BlueJeans site. Use your JLab credentials to access it.


      Announcements

 1. *MCwrapper 1.16 released
    <https://github.com/JeffersonLab/hd_utilities/releases/tag/v1.16>*.
    This includes a fully-functional database scheme to accept "orders"
    via the web and track each job over its lifetime.
 2. *MCwrapper 2.0 released (split-off)
    <https://github.com/JeffersonLab/gluex_MCwrapper/releases/tag/v2.0>*.
    This is the same code as v1.16, except it is hosted in a new
    stand-alone repository on GitHub.


      Review of minutes from the July 13 meeting

We went over the minutes 
<https://halldweb.jlab.org/wiki/index.php/GlueX_Offline_Meeting,_July_13,_2018#Minutes>. 


The occasionally missing blocks of 40 events is still a thing. We agreed 
that it should be tracked as an issue in some way.


      Report from the HDGeant4 Meeting

We went over the notes 
<https://halldweb.jlab.org/wiki/index.php/HDGeant4_Meeting,_July_20,_2018#Notes> 
from the meeting. Since the meeting there has been action on several 
issues. For details see the corresponding issue pages, linked below.

  * HOWTO on vertexing in Monte Carlo event generators for GlueX
    <https://github.com/JeffersonLab/HDGeant4/issues/55>. Richard has
    posted a new wiki page. See the discussion below.
  * Problems with FDC reconstruction
    <https://github.com/JeffersonLab/HDGeant4/issues/54>. Beni scanned
    some events. There hits are lost going from wire-based tracking to
    drift-time-based tracking when using HDGeant4.
  * TOF hit time distribution shape
    <https://github.com/JeffersonLab/HDGeant4/issues/52>. Agreement
    between HDG3 and 4 is good. HDG4 sees, late, low amplitude hits,
    probably from backsplash from FCAL.
  * Time shift in FCAL showers?
    <https://github.com/JeffersonLab/HDGeant4/issues/10>. Richard
    modified HDG4 to use an average of the block times rather than the
    first one. The agreement between 3 and 4 is good now.


      Splitting up Sim-Recon

Mark reported that we have delayed the deadline for pushes to the 
sim-recon repository, in advance of splitting that repository into 
halld_sim and halld_recon, three times now. The main cause of delay is 
the lack of a final tag on the code for the reconstruction launch, and 
the desire to apply that tag before we do the split. There is still no 
definite date for application of the tag. We decided to forego deadline 
announcements in the mean time. Collaborators should be prepared to see 
the split occur soon after the tag is applied.


      Status of Recon Launch

Monitoring launches and other studies are running now. There will be 
discussion of the results at tomorrow's analysis meeting.


      NERSC Status Update

David reported on recent success running jobs at NERSC using the new 
swif2 tool from SciComp. See his slides 
<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Qz-rRizJ6Vvn_r1rsWrwNdCVF6aLy1vMnpzCVctAJdQ/edit?usp=sharing> 
for details.

  * We may have to set up group-like accounts at NERSC and/or Globus
    Online to manage jobs in the future.
  * There are several layers of scripts necessary to run a job, much
    like launches on the JLab batch farm, just with a couple more layers.
  * Data transfer is handled with Globus Online
  * With the measured rate and the Lab's advertised bandwidth, we should
    be able to sustain over 500 jobs simultaneously.
  * Each job takes about three hours.


      Detached vertex how-to in GlueX simulations

Richard led us through his Guide to Monte Carlo event timing and 
detached vertices in HDGeant/4 
<https://halldweb.jlab.org/wiki/index.php/Guide_to_Monte_Carlo_event_timing_and_detached_vertices_in_HDGeant/4> 
wiki page. He wrote it in response to misunderstandings he has seen in 
private event generators, especially those with detached secondary 
vertices. There are two main topics addressed:

 1. How to maintain proper correlation between z and t of the
    interaction point to correspond to the position and time of photons
    synced to the machine RF.
 2. How to generate explicit particle decays and avoid double counting,
    i. e., having HDGeant track both parent particle and daughter particles.


      Retirement of old hddm-XXX utilities

Richard has written a new Guide to roll-your-own python hddm transforms 
<https://halldweb.jlab.org/wiki/index.php/Guide_to_roll-your-own_python_hddm_transforms>. 
These can be used in place of several compiled C++ programs we have been 
using to perform various manipulations on HDDM-based data. Now all of 
that functionality can be written in a very few lines of Python, a form 
which is much more transparent and much more easily modified and/or 
extended if the need arises. Several examples are presented and 
explained. David suggested that the some of these should be made into 
public scripts for general use.


      What I Learned at CHEP2018

David presented a summary of his impressions from the recent CHEP2018 
conference in Bulgaria. Please see his slides 
<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1a4N78rISJLrocB8la3QZacu7a4ZIml4P7tTvgffV1qU/edit?usp=sharing> 
for all of the topics. Among the highlights:

  * Vectorization in ROOT
  * Deep Learning applied to FPGAs
  * Citable Software (referencing software in archival journals)
  * SPACK, a new package manager
  * Software Training workshop structure

Retrieved from 
"https://halldweb.jlab.org/wiki/index.php?title=GlueX_Offline_Meeting,_July_24,_2018&oldid=88459"

  * This page was last modified on 26 July 2018, at 14:27.

-- 
Mark Ito, marki at jlab.org, (757)269-5295

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