Glossary

The words of FINISH, in the sense in which the software uses them.

Session: What FINISH is timing today: a competition (its name, its races) and its context (activity, sport, track). It comes from a file (Open a session…) or from the database (Load a competition from the database…). The word “event” is reserved for EVENT.
Activity: Competition, training or demo (Session configuration). When it changes, it automatically sets several options.
Race: Athletes who start together (or at intervals, in a time trial) and whom FINISH ranks among themselves. An EVENT heat becomes a FINISH race.
Race states: Not raced (in the list), loaded (on screen, waiting for the start), in progress, finished (everyone is done; the closing countdown is running), raced (it has left the screen; it is never taken up again on its own, except by Reset).
Active race: In “One race” mode, the race that receives the next start.
Open race: A race in which any transponder that crosses the line becomes an athlete. The emergency race is one.
Free practice (free sequence): In training, the race “LIBRE_yyyymmdd_hhmmss” that the first passing of a known athlete creates on its own; each athlete joins it at their first passing. It closes when the track empties (automatic closing).
Group: Races loaded together and closed together (“Grouped” loading); in long track, the pairs sharing the track carry the same code (G1, G2…) in the Group column of the list.
Pair: In long track, a race of two athletes (inner and outer lanes, white and red colors). Two pairs sharing the track form a quartet.
Start position: The athlete's number on the start line (lane, row). It gives their color (cap), and is used by the numeric keypad and by the automatic assignment of transponders.
Transponder: The chip the athlete wears; the decoder reads it at each passing over a loop. It has a printed code, a number, and sometimes a usual code (“3_BLANC”: set 3, white lane).
Unassigned transponder: A transponder that belongs to no athlete. In training, with the box that allows it, it becomes the session athlete “CHIP, …”.
Loop: A detection cable in the track, connected to the decoder. It has a name, an identifier (what the decoder sends) and a position in meters after the track's zero.
Finish line: A loop where races finish their laps; its name is its passing type (STA, STA2, BOX). Each race has its own.
Intermediate line: For a race, any other active loop of the track (other finish lines included): a split time, not a lap.
Start line: The distance from the start to the first passing at the finish line (the first partial lap); 0: start on the finish line. 1500 m on 400 m: 300 m.
Track zero: The middle of the bottom straight; positions are counted from there, in the racing direction.
Passing: What the equipment delivers: a transponder (or a signal) on a loop, at a given time. All are written to the database on receipt; a passing becomes a lap if it arrives at the finish line of the athlete's race and passes its rules (minimum, debounce…).
Start: A signal (start gun on the equipment, or Manual start) that starts one or more races.
False start: The race goes back to loaded: start, laps and assigned transponders reset.
Restart: In “One race” mode with “Start = clock at zero”: a new start signal restarts the race that has already started.
Double start: A second signal too close to the first (300 ms by default): ignored.
Start offset: A duration added to every start signal to align this computer's times with those of the photo finish.
Next: Send a race back down the list, reset, a few places further (order + increment).
Reset: Reset a raced race: it goes back to not raced, at the end of the list; its results are lost.
Min/Max: The minimum and maximum lap time: a shorter or longer lap is suspicious (action: nothing, report, do not add / add). By default, per race or per athlete.
Tile: The box for a lap in a race's standings: gray (not started), yellow (started), green (completed), blue (late).
Annotation: DNF (did not finish), DNS (did not start), DQ (disqualified), penalty or note, set on an athlete in a race.
Elimination: A race in which the last athlete drops out on certain laps (formula “3; 5; 7” or elimination rule); FINISH deactivates the eliminated athletes, who keep their place.
Elimination rule: A grid (elimination laps, athletes remaining depending on the number of starters) from which FINISH derives the formula at the start. The federation's arrive with the shared data; yours (“My rules”) are created in FINISH and are never touched by the update. See the scenario.
Bell: The last-lap signal, rung on the computer or by VOICE.
Lapping: Showing one held lap very large, on a track with many athletes circling; pack: the lap starts from the passing of the head of the pack.
Photocell: A broken beam, timestamped by a timer (FDS, Microgate). It does not say who passes: FINISH gives the signal to the first expected athlete in the lane (1 inner, 2 outer).
Timing mode: Decoder, manual (numeric keypad and start gun), hybrid (both) or photocells.
Management mode: One race, multiple races, time trial or automatic: how many races are on screen and which one starts.
Photo finish: The final time taken from the finish image (FinishLynx), received over the network; it replaces the transponder time, which is kept alongside.
.LIF file: The result of a race in the format of photo finish systems, written to the results folder; EVENT reads it.
.EVT file: The list of races and athletes in “lynx.evt” format: read by FINISH, exported for FinishLynx.
.cfevent file: The session file written by EVENT (“Export to FINISH…”): everything has its own field in it.
Shared database: A PostgreSQL server shared by several FINISH computers and EVENT: EVENT's races arrive there, FINISH's times go back from there.
Overall standings: Each athlete's times across all the races of a competition, technology by technology, in the database; the official time belongs to EVENT. The index is the rank of a distance for an athlete (their 2^nd 500 m: index 2).
Broadcast: The state of the races in progress sent to the displays (TABLEAU), to VOICE and to other clients: announcement, TCP, UDP, database, Redis.
ChronoFEED-SIM: The simulator (SIM): it imitates the equipment and makes athletes race, so you can test without hardware.
Template (favorite race): A model race: distance, track, start line, laps, loops, min/max, forecast, bell, elimination. Supplied per discipline, or your own.
Athlete reference: An athlete's identifier everywhere (file, engine, database, broadcast, photo); by default FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME.
Provisional record: An athlete record created by FINISH (or when a session arrives): EVENT confirms it or merges it.
Avatar: An athlete's image on the screens: their photo, otherwise the image in their record (flag, club logo, silhouette).