2.3 Basic structure

BoA consists of a set of classes, most of which are defined in dedicated modules (files). In addition, a few functions are defined in separate modules. A detailed description of all classes and methods can be found in Sect. 8. The subdivision was chosen to reach a high modularity and an obvious compilation of assortative functionalities within one class. Two kinds of classes may be distinguished:

• Data classes: The DataEntity class defines the data structure which is used within BoA. Objects of this class contain the raw and reduced data and all relevant parameters of a single scan. This class also defines methods to fill the data object from an MBFITS file. Then, the DataAna class inherits from DataEntity: it contains all data related methods, plus some methods for data analysis (e.g. flagging, baseline). Then, the Map class inherits from DataAna: it contains all methods defines in DataEntity and DataAna, plus specific methods for map processing and display. Finally, classes dedicated to various observing modes inherit from the Map class: they contain additional methods specific to a given type of observation. Table 1 lists BoA data classes, with module names and short descriptions of their responsibilities.

• Peripheral classes: All other classes provide methods which either are used by data objects (e.g. Image is used within Map objects), or provide functionalities on the BoA level (e.g. MessHand). These classes are summarized in Table 2.

Table: BoA data classes

class name	module	purpose
DataEntity	BoaDataEntity.py	data and parameters storage
DataAna	BoaDataAnalyser.py	general data analysis methods
Map	BoaMapping.py	map reduction
Focus	BoaFocus.py	focus reduction
OnOff	BoaOnOff.py	onoff reduction
Point	BoaPointing.py	pointing reduction
Sky	BoaSkydip.py	skydip reduction

Table: Other BoA classes

class name	module	purpose
Image	BoaMapping.py	image and axis description
CalData	BoaCalibrationData.py	calibration data
CorrCal	BoaCorrCal.py	correction and calibration
FitsOut	BoaFitsOutput.py	FITS output
Help	BoaHelp.py	online help
MessHand	BoaMessageHandler.py	message handling
DatabaseConn	BoaDatabaseConnector.py	connection to database
MamboMBFits	MamboMBFits.py	MAMBO to/from MB-Fits conversion
Timing	Utilities.py	benchmarking utilites

Finally, a few functions are defined in separate modules (listed in Table 3), which do not define any class. Thus, these functions can easily be imported and run from any level. In particular, the BoA Graphic Library (BoGLi) is defined in a collection of modules, which can be imported at the python level and do not require BoA. A description of BoGLi is given in Sect. 6.

Table: Other BoA modules

module name	purpose
BoGLi (see Sect. 6)	Graphic library
Utilities.py (see Sect. 8.18)	collection of utilities
BoaConfig.py (see Sect. 8.2)	global parameters definitions
BoaSimulation.py	LABOCA data simulator

In addition, a number of utility and computing routines are written in Fortran modules. These routines are used within Python methods, and should in principle not be called directly by a BoA user.