While FITS began as a means of transporting simple digitized images from machine to machine, it was soon realized that FITS could provide a framework for transporting other types of data. The number and meaning of the parameters and the dimensions of the array would be the same for all groups. The principal application of this format was to radio astronomical aperture synthesis visibility data. These data consist of small groups of arrays that occur in a relatively random manner on one or more axes. Random groups has failed to attain wide use in other areas and is now being replaced even for aperture synthesis data by binary tables.
Future use is discouraged.