Abstract
The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) successfully met the primary construction project completion milestones in April 2006. An important ingredient of this successful commissioning was the development and use of software tools. With the increasing digitalization of beam diagnostics and increasing complexity of Integrated Control Systems of large accelerators, the need for high level software tools is critical for smooth commissioning. At SNS a special Java based infrastructure called XAL was prepared for beam commissioning. XAL provides a hierarchal view of the accelerator, is data base configured, and includes a physics model of the beam. This infrastructure and individual applications development along with a historical time line of the SNS commissioning will be discussed.
