1. WHAT IS LIBAMTRACK?

libamtrack provides computational routines for the prediction of detector response and radiobiological efficiency in heavy charged particle beams.
libamtrack is designed for research in proton and ion dosimetry and radiotherapy.
libamtrack also provides many auxiliary routines for the work with proton and ion beams.
libamtrack is a program library.
libamtrack works both under Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.
libamtrack is written in ANSI C.
libamtrack is free, open-source software under GNU GPL licence.
libamtrack is intended to facilitate the comparison of and the communication on amorphous track models for particle beam research.

2. HOW CAN I USE LIBAMTRACK?

libamtrack is a program library and cannot be run as a single executable. A number of interfaces is provided with different complexities depending on your needs and experience. They are given below in order of complexity. Please be aware that for option (iv)-(vi) the GNU Scientific Library (GSL) has to be installed on your system. Refer to README_DEVELOPERS on how to do that.

i. Web-interface

The web interface covers a subset of libamtrack functions for easy access and can be found on libamtrack's website: https://libamtrack.github.io/web/. The sources can be found at (/distributions/JavaScript). The interface development was started by Christoph Kolb within his Bachelor thesis and consolidated by Leszek Grzanka.

ii. R

To access (almost any) function of libamtrack, we recommend to use the R environment. libamtrack is a contributed package (http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/libamtrack) on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN, http://cran.r-project.org) and can easily be installed and used from within R. It comes with documentation.

iii. Python, Matlab wrappers

libamtrack comes with a collection of wrappers for Python and Matlab (/distributions/Python, /distributions/Matlab).

iv. Use precompiled binaries

If you want to use libamtrack in your own code, please try to use the precompiled binaries (incl. headers) for your OS (Win, Mac OS X) are found on libamtrack's website. In case you are running Linux (or some exotic OS) you will have to compile and install libamtrack using autotools. But in the future, rpm/deb packages will be provided.

v. Compile libamtrack from distributed sources

Download the latest source distribution and use autotools (Windows: MinGW, Mac OS X: XCode) to compile and install.

vi. Work with full sources / development

This should be the very last alternative - THE FACT THAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT THIS FILE MIGHT BE AN INDICATION THAT YOU WANT TO DEVELOPE RATHER THAN JUST USE libamtrack. If not, try (i)-(vi). IF YOU DO, please look at README_DEVELOPERS.