J. A. Murphy and R.M. Wieland
Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08543
August 1992
LOCUS[1] is a database system for creating, manipulating, and interactively investigating databases. LOCUS was written in response to the need to study the data from the experimental devices at PPPL and is now also used extensively at other fusion laboratories. An example of its use is the determination of scaling laws. To do this, LOCUS allows the user to retrieve, enter, and modify data, define subsidiary variables as arbitrary functions of original data, plot and fit such variables, and perform multiple linear regression analysis. A flexible interactive interface makes the program easy to learn and largely self-documenting. Since the databases are INGRES databases, you can also use any of the INGRES programs to modify, view, or enter your data.
This report is a user's manual for the VAX ISAM implementation of LOCUS. The data is stored in VAX RMS files that allow a combination of keyed and sequential access called the Indexed Sequential Access Method (ISAM). Another version of LOCUS which manipulates data in INGRES databases is documented separately. This is a copy of the file USR:[LOCUS]LOCUS.DOC. This report is a user's manual for the VAX INGRES SQL implementation of LOCUS and supercedes PPPL-TM-387. Another version of LOCUS which stores data in VAX RMS files is documented separately.