We are new to MIDAS and try to setup a simple system with one ortec camac ADC
AD413A and the hytec1331 controler. Has anyone used this module in MIDAS we
would be grateful for the corresponding frontend.c etc. 

It would be very useful to have somewhere examples of files used by various
experiments in addition to the example files provided in the installation.

Best regards,
Hans 

I'm trying to setup Midas with the Caen vx2740 VME digitizer board.
As the backend driver I used the software from Darkside located here:

https://bitbucket.org/ttriumfdaq/dsproto_vx2740/src/develop/

They implemented some helpers program and one from them should diagnose correct running of digitizer. But when I'm trying to run example program "vx2740_readout_test" I have segmentation fault:

Thread 1 "vx2740_readout_" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x00005555555c2ee1 in rpc_register_function (id=id@entry=18000, func=func@entry=0x5555555a2790 <jrpc_helper(int, void**)>) at /home/astrocent/workspace/packages/midas/src/midas.cxx:11947

During the calling this program I have running mhttpd, mlogger and the backend for vx2740 from the repository.

I'm not able to find documentation what is purpose of the RPC? Could someone give any indicators how I can start debug this behavior? Or there is some documentation about the RPC?


I'm freshman in the Midas world, so at this moment everything seems for me very complicated - and I'm learning by doing.

Regards,
Grzegorz

The backtrace from gdb which indicates the function in Midas package:

#0  0x00005555555c2ee1 in rpc_register_function (id=id@entry=18000, func=func@entry=0x5555555a2790 <jrpc_helper(int, void**)>)
    at /home/astrocent/workspace/packages/midas/src/midas.cxx:11947
#1  0x00005555555c2f12 in cm_register_function (id=id@entry=18000, func=func@entry=0x5555555a2790 <jrpc_helper(int, void**)>)
    at /home/astrocent/workspace/packages/midas/src/midas.cxx:5840
#2  0x00005555555a26f6 in VX2740GroupFrontend::init (this=this@entry=0x7fffffffcba0, group_idx=group_idx@entry=-1, hDB=hDB@entry=0, enable_jrpc=enable_jrpc@entry=true)
    at /home/astrocent/workspace/packages/ttriumfdaq-dsproto_vx2740-8122058cacd1/vx2740_fe_class.cxx:134
#3  0x000055555557e492 in do_fe (board_name=..., is_scope=<optimized out>) at /home/astrocent/workspace/packages/ttriumfdaq-dsproto_vx2740-8122058cacd1/vx2740_readout_test.cxx:185
#4  0x000055555557adc9 in main (argc=<optimized out>, argv=0x7fffffffd1f8) at /home/astrocent/workspace/packages/ttriumfdaq-dsproto_vx2740-8122058cacd1/vx2740_readout_test.cxx:253

I tried to update MIDAS installation on Ubuntu 22.04.1 to the latest commit at 
the bitbucket.

I have update the ROOT from source the latest version ROOT 6.31/01.

During the MIDAS compilation I have error:

/usr/bin/ld: *some_path_to_ROOT*/libRIO.so: undefined reference to 
`std::condition_variable::wait(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&)@GLIBCXX_3.4.30'

The longer version of this error is below.

Has anybody knows some simple solution of this error?

Thanks, GN

Consolidate compiler generated dependencies of target manalyzer_main
[ 32%] Building CXX object 
manalyzer/CMakeFiles/manalyzer_main.dir/manalyzer_main.cxx.o
[ 33%] Linking CXX static library libmanalyzer_main.a
[ 33%] Built target manalyzer_main
Consolidate compiler generated dependencies of target manalyzer_test.exe
[ 33%] Building CXX object 
manalyzer/CMakeFiles/manalyzer_test.exe.dir/manalyzer_main.cxx.o
[ 34%] Linking CXX executable manalyzer_test.exe
/usr/bin/ld: /home/astrocent/workspace/root/root_install/lib/libRIO.so: undefined 
reference to 
`std::condition_variable::wait(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&)@GLIBCXX_3.4.30'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [manalyzer/CMakeFiles/manalyzer_test.exe.dir/build.make:124: 
manalyzer/manalyzer_test.exe] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:780: 
manalyzer/CMakeFiles/manalyzer_test.exe.dir/all] Error 2

Dear Konstantin,
Thank you for your interest in my problem.

What I did:
1. I installed the latest ROOT from source according tho the manual,
exactly as in this webpage (https://root.cern/install/).
ROOT sems work correctly, .demo from it is works and some example
file too. The manalyzer is not linking with this ROOT version installed from source.

2. I downgraded the ROOT to the lower version (6.30.04):
 git checkout -b v6-30-04 v6-30-04
ROOT seems compiled, installed and run correctly. The manalyzer,
from the MIDAS is not linked.

3. I downoladed the latest version of ROOT:
https://root.cern/download/root_v6.30.04.Linux-ubuntu22.04-x86_64-gcc11.4.tar.gz
and I installed it simple by tar: tar -xzvf root_...
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Welcome to ROOT 6.30/04                        https://root.cern |
  | (c) 1995-2024, The ROOT Team; conception: R. Brun, F. Rademakers |
  | Built for linuxx8664gcc on Jan 31 2024, 10:01:37                 |
  | From heads/master@tags/v6-30-04                                  |
  | With c++ (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0                   |
  | Try '.help'/'.?', '.demo', '.license', '.credits', '.quit'/'.q'  |
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
Again the ROOT sems work properly, the .demo from it is working, and example file
are working too. Manalyzer from MIDAS is failed to linking.

4. The midas with the option: cmake -D NO_ROOT=ON ..
is compliling, linking and even working.

5. When I try to build MIDAS with ROOT support threre is error:
[ 33%] Linking CXX executable manalyzer_test.exe
/usr/bin/ld: /home/astrocent/workspace/root/lib/libRIO.so: undefined reference to 
`std::condition_variable::wait(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&)@GLIBCXX_3.4.30

I'm trying to attach files:
cmake-midas-root -> My configuration of compiling MIDAS with ROOT
make-cmake-midas  -> output of my the command make cmake in MIDAS directory
make-cmake-k -> output of my the command make cmake -k in MIDAS directory

And I'm stupid at this moment.
Regards, 
Grzegorz Nieradka

I found solution for my trouble. With MIDAS and ROOT everything is OK,
the trobule was with my Ubuntu enviroment.

In this case the trobule was caused by earlier installed anaconda and hardcoded path
to anaconda libs folder in PATH enviroment variable.

In anaconda lib folder I have the libstdc++.so.6.0.29 and the hardcoded path
to this folder was added during the linking, by ld program, after the standard path location 
of libstdc++.

So the linker tried to link to this version of libstdc++.

When I removed the path for anaconda libs from enviroment and the standard libs location 
is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ and I have the libstdc++.so.6.0.32 version
of  stdc++ library everything is compiling and linking smoothly without any errors.

Additionaly, everything works smoothly even with the newest ROOT version 6.30/04 compiled
from source.

Thanks for help.

BTW. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Easter and tasty eggs!

Regards,
Grzegorz Nieradka

In midas.c, I noticed that memory is only allocated to the global buffer 
_net_send_buffer by calling realloc() from within the function 
resize_net_send_buffer() (at least this was the only place I could find 
allocation to _net_send_buffer happening). This can cause problems for a couple 
of reasons:

1) _net_send_buffer is not set to NULL when declared. To my understanding, this 
makes the first call to realloc(_net_send_buffer, /*size*/) undefined. When 
passed a pointer that has not previously been allocated, realloc() acts like 
malloc() only if the pointer equal to NULL. Otherwise, the behavior is undefined 
and usually causes a crash.

2) cm_disconect_experiment() calls free(_net_send_buffer) but does not set its 
value to NULL. Thus if a client tries to include more than one 
connect...disconnect cycle within an application, there is undefined behavior 
the next time realloc(_net_send_buffer, ...) gets called.

I think that any potential allocation issues involving _net_send_buffer could be 
solved by:

1) Initializing _net_send_buffer to NULL.

2) In cm_disconnect_experiment(), changing
>   M_FREE(_net_send_buffer); 
to 
>   M_FREE(_net_send_buffer);
>   _net_send_buffer = NULL;

> > In midas.c, ...
> >
> > 1) _net_send_buffer is not set to NULL when declared.
> 
> _net_send_buffer is a global variable. All global variables are automatically 
initialized to zero before the program 
> starts.
> 
> static char*x; // = NULL; is redundant
> char*y=realloc(x, 100);  // x is NULL, usage is correct
>

Ah,okay. I was not aware of this feature of global variables.

 
> > 2) cm_disconect_experiment() calls free(_net_send_buffer) but does not set 
its 
> > value to NULL.
> 
> My copy of midas.c (svn rev 5256) sets _net_send_buffer to NULL:
> 
>    if (_net_send_buffer_size > 0) { 
>       M_FREE(_net_send_buffer); 
>       _net_send_buffer_size = 0; 
>    } 
>  
> What version of midas do you have? (svn info .)
> 
> K.O.

I have version 5256 also (matches what you posted), but I only see 
_net_send_buffer_size being set to 0, not _net_send_buffer itself. In midas.h, 
M_FREE(x) only expands to free(x) if _MEM_DBG is not defined.

Dear all,
We are storing raw MIDAS files to S3 Object Storage, but MIDAS file are not 
optimised for readout from such kind of storage. There is any work around on 
evolution of midas raw output or, beyond simulated posix fs,  to develop midas 
python library optimised to stream data from S3 (is not really clear to me if this 
is possible).

> > We are storing raw MIDAS files to S3 Object Storage, but MIDAS file are not 
> > optimised for readout from such kind of storage. There is any work around on 
> > evolution of midas raw output or, beyond simulated posix fs,  to develop midas 
> > python library optimised to stream data from S3 (is not really clear to me if this 
> > is possible).
> 
> We have plans for adding S3 object storage support to lazylogger, but have not gotten 
> around to it yet.
> 
> We do not plan to add this in mlogger. mlogger works well for writing data to locally-
> attached storage (local ext4, XFS, ZFS) but always runs into problems with timeouts and 
> delays when writing to anything network-attached (even writing to NFS).
> 
> I envision that each midas raw data file (mid.gz or mid.lz4 or mid.bz2) will
> be stored as an S3 object and there will be some kind of directory object
> to map object ids to run and subrun numbers.
> 
> Choice of best file size is open, normally we use subruns to limit file size to 1-2 
> Gbytes. If cloud storage prefers some other object size, we can easily to up to 10 
> Gbytes and down to "a few megabytes" (ODB dumps will have to be turned off for this).
> 
> Other than that, in your view, what else is needed to optimize midas files for storage 
> in the Amazon S3 could?
> 
> P.S. For reading files from the cloud, code needs to be written and added to 
> midasio/midasio.cxx, for example, see the code that is already there for reading ssh-
> attached files and dcache/dccp-attached files. (CERN EOS files can be read directly 
> from POSIX mount point /eos).
> 
> K.O.

thanks, 
actually a I made a small work around with python boto3 library with file of any size (with 
the obviously limitation of opportunity and time to wait) eg:

key = 'TMP/run00060.mid.gz'

aws_session = creds.assumed_session("infncloud-iam")
s3 = aws_session.client('s3', endpoint_url="https://minio.cloud.infn.it/", 
                        config=boto3.session.Config(signature_version='s3v4'),verify=True)

s3_obj = s3.get_object(Bucket='cygno-data',Key=key)
buf = BytesIO(s3_obj["Body"]._raw_stream.data)

for event in MidasSream(gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=buf)):
    if event.header.is_midas_internal_event():
        print("Saw a special event")
        continue

    bank_names = ", ".join(b.name for b in event.banks.values())
    print("Event # %s of type ID %s contains banks %s" % (event.header.serial_number, 
event.header.event_id, bank_names))
    ....


where in MidasSream I just bypass the open, and the code work, but obviously in this way I 
need to have all the buffer in memory and it take time get all the buffer. I was interested to 
understand if some one have already develop the stream event by event (better in python but 
not mandatory). I'll look to the code you underline.
Thanks, G. 
 

Ciao, 
we have a very strange issue with python lib with client.odb_get("/") function 
when running as midas process and matplotlib is used.


we are developing a remote console by means of sending via kafka producer the odb, 
camera image and pmt waveforms, in the INFN cloud where grafana make available 
data for non expert shifters, as well as sending midas events for online 
reconstruction to the htcondr queue on cloud. The process work perfectly and allow 
use to parallelise to standard midas pipeline for file production, ecc the online 
monitoring and data processing where we have computing resources (our DAQ is 
underground at LNGS). Part of the work will be presented next weak at CHEP
the full code is available at https://github.com/CYGNUS-
RD/middleware/blob/master/dev/event_producer_s3.py
but to get the strange behaviour I report here a test script:

----
def main(verbose=False):
    from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

    import time

    import midas
    import midas.client

    
    client = midas.client.MidasClient("middleware")
    buffer_handle = client.open_event_buffer("SYSTEM",None,1000000000)
    request_id = client.register_event_request(buffer_handle, sampling_type = 2) 
    
    fpath = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(sys.argv[0]))
    
    
    while True:
        # 
        odb = client.odb_get("/")
        if verbose:
            print(odb)
        start1 = time.time()
              
        client.communicate(10)
        time.sleep(1)
        

    client.deregister_event_request(buffer_handle, request_id)

    client.disconnect()
----
if I run it as cli interactivity including or not matplotlib the everything si ok. 
As I run it as midas "program" I get: 
-----
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/standard/daq/middleware/dev/test_midas_error.py", line 48, in 
<module>
    main(verbose=options.verbose)
  File "/home/standard/daq/middleware/dev/test_midas_error.py", line 29, in main
    odb = client.odb_get("/")
  File "/home/standard/packages/midas/python/midas/client.py", line 354, in 
odb_get
    retval = midas.safe_to_json(buf.value, use_ordered_dict=True)
  File "/home/standard/packages/midas/python/midas/__init__.py", line 552, in 
safe_to_json
    return json.loads(decoded, strict=False, 
object_pairs_hook=collections.OrderedDict)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/__init__.py", line 370, in loads
    return cls(**kw).decode(s)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/decoder.py", line 337, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/decoder.py", line 353, in raw_decode
    obj, end = self.scan_once(s, idx)
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting property name enclosed in double quotes: 
line 300 column 26 (char 17535)
----
if I comment out the import of matplotlib every think works perfectly again also 
as midas program. 

it seams that there is a difference between the to way of use the code, and that 
is sufficient the call to matplotlib to corrupt in some way the odb. any ideas?

> > it seams that there is a difference between the to way of use the code, and that 
> > is sufficient the call to matplotlib to corrupt in some way the odb. any ideas?
> 
> I can't reproduce this on my machines, so this is going to be fun to debug!
> 
> Can you try running the program below please? It takes the important bits from odb_get() but prints out the string before we try to parse it as JSON. Feel free to send me the output via email (bsmith@triumf.ca) if you don't want to post your entire ODB dump in the elog.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> import sys
> import os
> import time
> import midas
> import midas.client
> import ctypes
> 
> def debug_get(client):
>     c_path = ctypes.create_string_buffer(b"/")
>     hKey = ctypes.c_int()
>     client.lib.c_db_find_key(client.hDB, 0, c_path, ctypes.byref(hKey))
> 
>     buf = ctypes.c_char_p()
>     bufsize = ctypes.c_int()
>     bufend = ctypes.c_int()
> 
>     client.lib.c_db_copy_json_save(client.hDB, hKey, ctypes.byref(buf), ctypes.byref(bufsize), ctypes.byref(bufend))
> 
>     print("-" * 80)
>     print("FULL DUMP")
>     print("-" * 80)
>     print(buf.value)
>     print("-" * 80)
>     print("Chars 17000-18000")
>     print("-" * 80)
>     print(buf.value[17000:18000])
>     print("-" * 80)
> 
>     as_dict = midas.safe_to_json(buf.value, use_ordered_dict=True)
> 
>     client.lib.c_free(buf)
> 
>     return as_dict
> 
> def main(verbose=False):
>     client = midas.client.MidasClient("middleware")
>     buffer_handle = client.open_event_buffer("SYSTEM",None,1000000000)
>     request_id = client.register_event_request(buffer_handle, sampling_type = 2)
> 
>     fpath = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(sys.argv[0]))
> 
>     while True:
>         # odb = client.odb_get("/")
>         odb = debug_get(client)
> 
>         if verbose:
>             print(odb)
>         start1 = time.time()
> 
>         client.communicate(10)
>         time.sleep(1)
> 
> 
>     client.deregister_event_request(buffer_handle, request_id)
> 
>     client.disconnect()
> 
> if __name__ == "__main__":
>     main()
Thank you!
if I added the mat

> > it seams that there is a difference between the to way of use the code, and that 
> > is sufficient the call to matplotlib to corrupt in some way the odb. any ideas?
> 
> I can't reproduce this on my machines, so this is going to be fun to debug!
> 
> Can you try running the program below please? It takes the important bits from odb_get() but prints out the string before we try to parse it as JSON. Feel free to send me the output via email (bsmith@triumf.ca) if you don't want to post your entire ODB dump in the elog.

Thank you!
if I added the matplotlib as follow:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import sys
import os
import time
import midas
import midas.client
import ctypes
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

def debug_get(client):
    c_path = ctypes.create_string_buffer(b"/")
    hKey = ctypes.c_int()
    client.lib.c_db_find_key(client.hDB, 0, c_path, ctypes.byref(hKey))

    buf = ctypes.c_char_p()
    bufsize = ctypes.c_int()
    bufend = ctypes.c_int()

    client.lib.c_db_copy_json_save(client.hDB, hKey, ctypes.byref(buf), ctypes.byref(bufsize), ctypes.byref(bufend))

    print("-" * 80)
    print("FULL DUMP")
    print("-" * 80)
    print(buf.value)
    print("-" * 80)
    print("Chars 17000-18000")
    print("-" * 80)
    print(buf.value[17000:18000])
    print("-" * 80)

    as_dict = midas.safe_to_json(buf.value, use_ordered_dict=True)

    client.lib.c_free(buf)

    return as_dict

def main(verbose=False):
    client = midas.client.MidasClient("middleware")
    buffer_handle = client.open_event_buffer("SYSTEM",None,1000000000)
    request_id = client.register_event_request(buffer_handle, sampling_type = 2)

    fpath = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(sys.argv[0]))

    while True:
        # odb = client.odb_get("/")
        odb = debug_get(client)

        if verbose:
            print(odb)
        start1 = time.time()

        client.communicate(10)
        time.sleep(1)


    client.deregister_event_request(buffer_handle, request_id)

    client.disconnect()

        
if __name__ == "__main__":
    from optparse import OptionParser
    parser = OptionParser(usage='usage: %prog\t ')
    parser.add_option('-v','--verbose', dest='verbose', action="store_true", default=False, help='verbose output;');
    (options, args) = parser.parse_args()
    main(verbose=options.verbose)


then tested the code in interactive mode without any error. as soon as I submit as midas "Program" I get the attached output.
thank you again, Giovanni

> > Looks like a localisation issue. Your floats are formatted as "6,6584e+01", whereas the JSON decoder expects "6.6584e+01".
> 
> This should be fixed in the latest commit to the midas develop branch. The JSON specification requires a dot for the decimal separator, so we must ignore the user's locale when formatting floats/doubles for JSON.
> 
> I've tested the fix on my machine by manually changing the locale, and also added an automated test in the python directory.

Thanks very macth Ben,
so if I understand correctly we have to update MIDAS to latest develop branch available? can you sand me the link to be sure of install the right update. 
can you also tell me how you fix manually? we are restarting and then well be difficult install and makes updete.
thank you again, regards, Giovanni

Hi,
I'm developing a Slow Control equipment on a Linux board that send data on a remote server
running 'mserver'; the build goes fine, but  when I run the executable it seems that an assertion in 
midas.c failed:

[dfe01,INFO] Slow control equipment initialized
dfe: src/midas.c:838: cm_msg_flush_buffer: Assertion `rp[3]=='_'' failed.

if I remove line 838 from midas.c (fixing message length) the problem disappear...

Regards,
Gennaro

> > [dfe01,INFO] Slow control equipment initialized
> > dfe: src/midas.c:838: cm_msg_flush_buffer: Assertion `rp[3]=='_'' failed.
> > if I remove line 838 from midas.c (fixing message length) the problem disappear...
> 
> Thank you for reporting this problem.
> 
> It is very strange, the check is for message start "MSG_", why "M", "S" and "G" are there
> but "_" is missing? And you remove the check for "_" and the rest of the message is also okey?
> Very odd.

if I remove the check for "_" then the first message is empty and next messages are ok...
If I don't remove the check the frontend fails at start and I find these lines in midas.log:

14:46:29.719 2019/03/19 [dfe01,INFO] Program dfe01 on host lxaria02 started
14:46:29.731 2019/03/19 [dfe01,INFO] Dome FE initialized
14:46:29.737 2019/03/19 [dfe01,ERROR] [system.c:4709:recv_tcp2,ERROR] unexpected connection closure
14:46:29.737 2019/03/19 [dfe01,ERROR] [midas.c:12814:recv_event_server,ERROR] recv_tcp2(header) returned -1
14:46:29.737 2019/03/19 [dfe01,ERROR] [midas.c:14699:rpc_server_receive,ERROR] recv_event_server() returned -1, abort
14:46:29.737 2019/03/19 [dfe01,TALK] Program 'dfe01' on host 'lxaria02' aborted
 
> You can also add this code "assert(4+3*sizeof(int)+len < 1020)" in cm_msg_buffer() right before
> rb_increment_wp() - it this assert fails, we definitely determine that we have a buffer overflow.

I added assert you suggested in cm_msg_buffer() function before rp_increment_wp() and 
result is always the same at same line:

[dfe01,INFO] Dome FE initialized
Dome0001-rc:
[dfe01,INFO] Slow control equipment initialized
dfe: src/midas.c:839: cm_msg_flush_buffer: Assertion `rp[3]=='_'' failed.
Aborted

Regards,
Gennaro

Hi,

I realized that if I use 'rmlogger' to write events in ROOT format,
each event is counted twice;

to fix the problem I commented line 3446 of mlogger.cxx (inside root_write 
function):

 //log_chn->statistics.events_written++;

Regards,
Gennaro

Hi,

if I use 'rmlogger' to write ROOT event files after few seconds from
START rmlogger fails with this:

 *** Break *** segmentation violation

I realized that removing bk_swap(...) from line 3364 of mlogger.cxx
it works fine...

Regards,
Gennaro

Hi,

> I confirm this problem - event counter is incremented by root_write() and by log_write() after calling 
> root_write() through the WriterRoot::wr_write().
> 
> I will try to fix this for the next release of midas, keep an eye on it here:
> https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/issues/177

thanks !

> BTW, I do not think the ROOT writer (and rmlogger) get much use these days, as most experiments we do 
> today have data in binary formats that do not fit naturally for storage into ROOT TTree objects. We mostly 
> record digitized waveforms and such and they are best stored in binary midas files. The ROOT analyzer 
> would read them using the midasio.h classes from the ROOTANA package.

yes, I agree with you about this, but to have a "quick and dirty" plot on some ADC channels
can be a very nice "temporary" solution when you are developing your software DAQ...

Regards,
Gennaro

> BTW2, for recording MIDAS data, ROOT I/O uses the wrong compression - they compress using gzip, 
> which is too slow compared to LZ4 on one side and does not compress as well as BZIP2 on the other side.
> 
> K.O.

Hi,

> I confirm this problem - event counter is incremented by root_write() and by log_write() after calling 
> root_write() through the WriterRoot::wr_write().
> 
> I will try to fix this for the next release of midas, keep an eye on it here:
> https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/issues/177

thanks !

> BTW, I do not think the ROOT writer (and rmlogger) get much use these days, as most experiments we do 
> today have data in binary formats that do not fit naturally for storage into ROOT TTree objects. We mostly 
> record digitized waveforms and such and they are best stored in binary midas files. The ROOT analyzer 
> would read them using the midasio.h classes from the ROOTANA package.

yes, I agree with you that ROOT files are not suitable to store "first level" data, but this is a very
useful solution when you are developing a software DAQ and you need some (quick) spectra in order
to verify some code...

Regards,
Gennaro