A MAD-X primer

Thepurposeof thisnoteis to serveasanintroductionto MAD-X for thenoviceuser. It describesthebasicbuilding elementsandthemostimportantcommandsto defineamachine andperformthemostimportantcalculations.It cannotreplacea referencemanualfor the moreadvancedanddemandinguseof MAD-X, but shouldhelpstartingup thedesignof a new acceleratorlatticeandto understandexisting MAD-X input. This noteis a writeupof apresentationgivenatacourseonopticsdesignat theCERNAcceleratorSchoolatDESY Zeuthen,2003. Geneva,Switzerland 1 June2004