CBS felt that it may be a promising and cost-effective way to encourage Members to exchange software that is already available in meteorological centers. This approach raises a number of questions pertaining to software compatibility and portability. Three trends in computer applications make porting of software between different computer centers more and more feasible. First, standardization in the meteorological community has rendered common data formats, data handling and telecommunications procedures. Many basic functions performed by computer programs in meteorological centers are essentially very similar or even identical.
Suitable programs are available in meteorological centers of most developed countries.
Second, efforts in WMO in developing WMO-agreed standards for software designing, programming techniques and software documentation will gradually alleviate the level of incompatibility in meteorological computer solutions. Third, international and industry standards spread aggressively and are now more readily accepted in the software laboratories of meteorlogical services than some years ago. All this will lessen hardware-induced incompatibilities of computer programs. In order to prvide a manageable structure for the exchage a framework of categories has been established, under which the individual computer programs should be grouped. To this end, both the range of computer hardware and the various areas of meteorological software application are cataloged in simplified categories.