[Gate-users] Output

[Daniel Woodsworth]

Hi,

I am wondering what the best way is to output data from GATE simulations.
I am doing SPECT simulations, so for creating projections, I have been
using the Interfile output, which works really well.

However, for data analysis and processing and numerical calculations,
obviously it is good to have all the information about order of scatter,
last object in which scatter occurred etc. etc. This (as far as I can
tell) is not included in an interfile. So it seems that for this data I
should use root and/or ascii output (are there any other general purpose
outputs? is it possible to write directly to binary files?). In the Output
section of the GATE manual it says that the root files are smaller and
contain all of the same information that is in the ascii format. I have 2
questions about this. First, upon running the SPECT benchmark, the
benchSPECT.root file is 61 MB, while the ascii gateSingles.dat is 6.3 MB.
How does this relate to the root files being smaller? Does this become
true for larger data output files? Second, when I load up the root file:

home> root benchSPECT.root

root [0]
Attaching file benchSPECT.root as _file0...
root [1] TBrowser t

I only find already processed data, presented as histograms and whatnot.
Can anyone tell me where to find the raw data, as in the ascii output?
Since it is compressed, I assume it isn't some form of directly readable
file. Is it binary? What I am asking for is which file do I use for raw
input data if I were to write ROOT analysis scripts, and in what format is
the data written to this file?

Finally is it recommended to do analysis using 'homemade' (ie. C or C++)
programs analyzing the ascii output? Or rather using ROOT scripts for the
root file?

Thanks for the help.

Daniel