  FINESSE is a software simulation that allows to compute the optical
properties of laser interferometers as they are used by the interferometric
gravitational-wave detectors today. It provides a fast and versatile tool which
has proven to be very useful during the design and the commissioning of
gravitational-wave detectors. The basic algorithm of FINESSE numerically
computes the light amplitudes inside an interferometer using Hermite-Gauss
modes in the frequency domain. In addition, FINESSE provides a number of
commands to easily generate and plot the most common signals like, for example,
power enhancement, error or control signals, transfer functions and
shot-noise-limited sensitivities.
  Among the various simulation tools available to the gravitational wave
community today, FINESSE is the most advanced general optical simulation that
uses the frequency domain. It has been designed to allow general analysis of
user defined optical setups while being easy to install and easy to use.
