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Madagascar's design

There are a few layers to Madagascar. At the bottom-most layer, is the RSF file format, which is a common exchange format that all Madagascar programs use. Non-Madagascar programs can also read/write to and from RSF because it is an open exchange format. The next level of Madagascar contains the actual Madagascar programs that manipulate RSF files to process data. Concurrent to this level is the VPLOT graphics library which allows users to plot and visualize RSF files. The scripting utilities in Python and SCons are up another level from the core programs. These scripting utilities allow users to make powerful scripts that can perform even the most advanced data processing tasks. The last level includes support for LaTeX which allows you to make documents combining the features of Madagascar with the powerful typesetting of LaTeX. Throughout the course of these tutorials, we will examine all of these components, and demonstrate how they can be used individually, as well as together. When combined, the individual components of Madagascar allow us to: conduct experiments, process data, visualize our results, make reproducible scripts that can be shared with others, and write papers to document our experiments. Thus, Madagascar provides a fully integrated research environment.

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