/*! \mainpage HippoDraw Users Guide

@ref quick_root

@image html canvaswindow.png "HippoDraw canvas window"
@image latex canvaswindow.eps "HippoDraw canvas window" width=\textwidth

   @b HippoDraw provides a highly interactive data analysis
environment.  It is written in C++ with the
<a href="http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.html">Qt</a>
library from <a href="http://www.trolltech.com"> Trolltech.</a> It
should run anywhere %Qt runs which is just about
<a href="http://www.trolltech.com/developer/notes/supported_platforms">
everywhere</a>.  This release has been tested on Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 3 and 4, Fedora Core 5, Microsoft Windows XP, and Mac OS X 10.4
both native and with X Windows.

@b HippoDraw can be used as a stand-a-lone application or a Python
extension module.  In the latter case, Python is effectively the
scripting language for @b HippoDraw.

Here are some @ref comments_root.

This page gives an overview of @b HippoDraw.  Go to the @ref
quick_root to find a short cuts to tutorials, user guides, examples,
etc.

    @b HippoDraw has highly interactive controls on the data plots via
a dialog window called the @b %Inspector.  For example, one can change
the width of the bins of a histogram via a slider and see the
histogram plot re-display itself many times a second.  See @ref
inspector_root and @ref canvas_root for a description of the available
controls.

   A data source for @b HippoDraw is typically a %NTuple, but @b
HippoDraw supports a number of different kinds described in the @ref
ntuple_root page.  When used as a @ref pythonoverview_root, Python
numerical arrays are also supported.  A number of visual @ref
datareps_root can be made with this data.  They are typically placed
on a canvas as shown @ref canvas_root.

   Doing easy data analysis tasks should be easy and they are done
with @b HippoDraw's %Inspector.  Doing more difficult tasks should be
possible.  Here, one would expect to find a command line and/or
scripting interface to @b HippoDraw.  But @b HippoDraw does not have
either.  Instead one of @b HippoDraw's @ref pythonoverview_root is
used.  The @ref python_interact allows user manipulation of the data
representations as if they were Python objects.  This can be done
either interactively, or via scripts written in Python.  Changes made
via Python are reflected in the %Inspector and vice versa.

   One can use @b HippoDraw's C++ library for @ref customapps_root in
either C++ or Python. See @ref customapps_examples.  The library
consists of over 100 classes with about 50K lines of source code. The
library is in two parts the core and the GUI part. With debugging
symbols, they are about 10 MB and 5 MB respectively with all the
optional support enabled.  Without debugging symbols, they are under
1.5MB and 1MB.  Both can compiled and linked in just over 6 minutes
with GCC 4.1.0 on a 2 Ghz Pentium M laptop.  A descriptive of the
library begins is <a href="lib/index.html">here</a>.
A mirror of 
<a href="http://www-glast.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/viewvc/?root=HIPPO">
the CVS archive
is browseable on the Web</a>.

For more information
@li See @ref download_root page for available pre-built binaries and source code.
@li See @ref install_notes instructions for Windows, Mac OS X,  and Unix like systems.  
@li See @ref release_notes for new features, changes and bug fixes.
@li The
<a class="el" href="http://www-glast.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/hippodraw">
HippoDraw mailing list.</a>

@author Paul F. Kunz <Paul_Kunz@slac.stanford.edu>

*/