Did you know?: Documentation is important!

Summer 2017

A Google Search:

Documentation is the Most Valuable Thing You Do (from cyborginstitute.org/projects/administration/documentation/).

Good documentation makes software and tools more valuable and more durable, and although documentation can be a great expense, in the long term it’s almost always worthwhile.

The schematic diagram representing the GFS Physics calling structure.
The schematic diagram representing the GFS Physics calling structure.

As part of its effort to set up a framework for a Common Community Physics Package (CCPP), the DTC’s Global Model Test Bed is documenting the Global Forecast System’s operational physics suite using “Doxygen” software.

Doxygen is [a] tool for generating documentation from popular programming languages include Python, Fortran, C, C++, IDL

This software parses specially formatted in-line comments and creates navigable and searchable web documents.

For the GFS physics suite, documentation is written within Fortran code, so is relatively easy to keep up-to-date as new developments are added to the model.

www.doxygen.org/

GFS Operational Physics Documentation
GFS Operational Physics Documentation