Software package as an information center product

The Argonne Code Center serves as a software exchange and information center for the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The goal of the Center's program is to provide a means for sharing of software among agency offices and contractors, and for transferring computing applications and technology, developed within the agencies, to the information-processing community. A major activity of the Code Center is the acquisition, review, testing, and maintenance of a collection of software--computer systems, applications programs, subroutines, modules, and data compilations--prepared by agency offices and contractors to meet programmatic needs. A brief review of the history of computer program libraries and software sharing is presented to place the Code Center activity in perspective. The state-of-the-art discussion starts off with an appropriate definition of the term software package, together with descriptions of recommended package contents and the Carter's package evaluation activity. An effort is made to identify the various users of the product, to enumerate their individual needs, to document the Center's efforts to meet these needs and the ongoing interaction with the user community. Desirable staff qualifications are considered, and packaging problems, reviewed. The paper closes with a brief look at recent developments and a forecast of things to come. 2 tables