What is ROOT

Root is a very powerful data analysis package which was developed and written at CERN, the European high energy accelerator lab. It consists of a library of C++ classes and functions for histogramming, data manipulation (like fitting and data reduction) and storage tools. There are two ways to use ROOT. One way is by calling the appropriate functions from your own program. The second way relies on a C++ interpreter and a graphical user interface, allowing you to display and manipulate data interactively. Originally written for high energy physics, it is today also widely used in other fields, including astrophysics, neural network applications, and financial institutions on Wall Street.

The ROOT basics

ROOT in the word of its authors is an “object oriented framework” [11]. Instead of having to write your own graphics routines, or modify existing programs to suit your needs, a framework provides you with functions and routines which are already well tested. ROOT, having been developed by physicists for physics problems, gives you a large class of routines which you can just use “out of the box.”

One of the main advantages of ROOT is that it is running and supported on all the major UNIX platforms, as well as on Windows XP and MacOS. This widespread availability makes it the perfect choice, reducing the chances of having to learn a new package every time you change computers.