CHIL - A Comprehensive Histogramming Language

A high level language, CHIL, has been developed for use in processing event-by-event experimental data at the Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility (HHIRF) using PERKIN-ELMER 3230 computers. CHIL has been fully integrated into all software which supports on-line and off-line histogramming and off-line preprocessing. CHIL supports simple gates, free-form-gates (2-D regions of arbitrary shape), condition test and branch statements, bit-tests, loops, calls to up to three user supplied subroutines and histogram generating statements. Any combination of 1, 2, 3 or 4-D histograms (32 megachannels max) may be recorded at 16 or 32 bits/channel. User routines may intercept the data being processed and modify it as desired. The CPU-intensive part of the processing utilizes microcoded routines which enhance performance by about a factor of two.