ADLIB: A simple database framework for beamline codes

There are many well developed codes available for beamline design and analysis. A significant fraction of each of these codes is devoted to processing its own unique input language for describing the problem. None of these large, complex, and powerful codes does everything. Adding a new bit of specialized physics can be a difficult task whose successful completion makes the code even larger and more complex. This paper describes an attempt to move in the opposite direction, toward a family of small, simple, single purpose physics and utility modules, linked by an open, portable, public domain database framework. These small specialized physics codes begin with the beamline parameters already loaded in the database, and accessible via the handful of subroutines that constitute ADLIB. Such codes are easier to write, and inherently organized in a manner suitable for incorporation in model based control system algorithms. Examples include programs for analyzing beamline misalignment sensitivities, for simulating and fitting beam steering data, and for translating among MARYLIE, TRANSPORT, and TRACE3D formats