[Rivet] Rivet 1.8.2 and 2.0.0 release plans

[Andy Buckley]

Hi all,

Just a very quick update on the plan for upcoming Rivet releases.

Last week we thought we were just about ready to release 1.8.2beta0 for
testing in mcplots before we made the full release, but then Hendrik and
I found out about a whole load of LHCb and other analyses written by
Sercan Sen, Alex Grecu and co which are just about ready, and Peter R
and CMS have just supplied a couple more. Since we still haven't figured
out a way to cleanly separate the Rivet framework releases from the
analysis pack releases (the framework is still evolving a bit too fast),
it makes sense to wait a little longer and get these analyses in, rather
than be immediately out of date and have people hassling us for
*another* 1.8.x release.

On the (only slightly) longer term, a couple of weeks ago in Durham we
made very good progress toward getting all analyses YODAified, and YODA
itself is now looking very stable and powerful indeed. So I have made a
YODA 0.6beta0 tarball available on http://yoda.hepforge.org for those
who want to play with it. I have to say I think it's very nice indeed:
there are a bunch of missing intended features, but I don't think we can
be embarrassed about that when we already have so much functionality
(and usability) that ROOT does not! Please take a look and let us know
your thoughts/wishes/etc.

The plan for release of Rivet 2.0.0, using YODA is that we will do so by
the end of the year, preferably within the next couple of weeks: I think
this is entirely possible given a bit of time spent syncing the last
week's (and this week's) 1.8.2 developments on to the trunk and patching
up the last few "problem" analyses. The only feature which I think is
really missing is a YODAised version of compare-histos (and hence
rivet-mkhtml), to avoid having to go through a several-step
.yoda->.aida->.dat format chain in order to get histograms. That one's
assigned to me, but if you want to do it, go ahead :)
   I am tempted in this process to rename compare-histos as something
like rivet-cmphistos since it is really a Rivet-specific tool and the
rivet-<name> form is our script naming convention: any thoughts on this?

On the same sort of timescale it would be great if we can get the paper
draft that Frank, Leif and Hendrik have worked on into a state suitable
for submission. I do wonder if, given our timeline, we should update it
a bit for version 2.0.0 and release coincident with that? As I
understand it, the only blockers for now are some LaTeX issues, the
proof-reading, and perhaps a review of the authorship.

We have also cleaned up the Rivet bug/task tracker to make it relevant
again, so please use it! I think David G and Hendrik are going to look
into installing the Trac SpamFilter (which it seems is available via
pip) on HepForge so that it'll be possible for non-registered people to
submit bugs/requests. Hopefully at some point you will also be able to
log into the project trackers using your normal HepForge login details
and HTTPS.

That's it for now -- let's do what we can to get 2 new releases and a
paper out in the next few weeks. Sounds mad, but we are 90%+ of the way
in all three cases, so I think we can do it :)

Andy

-- 
Dr Andy Buckley, SUPA Advanced Research Fellow
Particle Physics Expt Group, University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.