The Experiment Data Base is a part of the Laplace Transient Processing system and it is the tool which is central to data manipulation, visualisation, and analysis. In this program it has been attempted to meet specific needs of this experimental technique and also to be compatible with other experiments which may accompany the main system. The principal need is that it should be possible to store and then easily manipulate large amounts of data. The database system should run in the background of the measurement, storing data and all parameters that describe the measuring process and the data itself. Afterwards it should enable user to extract, compare, visualise and maintain gathered data.
Here are the main design assumptions made:
• raw measurement data are not stored inside the database; they are stored in separate files and only information about the files is kept in the base,
• raw measurement data are stored in text format, so they can be easily accessed, inspected and processed by other programs and routines,
• raw measurement data are kept together in the same files with parameters, so they can be interpreted without accessing the database,
• the data files are formatted in such a way that it is possible to use operating system standard functions to process them,
• database keeps information about location of the raw data files as well as measurement parameters, experimental conditions etc. read from the files,
• end user is provided with tools to create and modify data used to describe measurement processes, so he can define his own sets of parameters, measurement types etc.