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\label{sec:Config}

ESMF Configuration Management is based on NASA DAO's 
Inpak 90 package, a Fortran 90 collection of routines/functions
for accessing {\em Resource Files} in ASCII format.The package 
is optimized for minimizing formatted I/O, performing all of its 
string operations in memory using Fortran intrinsic functions.\\

\subsubsection{Package history}

The ESMF Configuration Management Package was evolved by
Leonid Zaslavsky and Arlindo da Silva from Ipack90 package
created by Arlindo da Silva at NASA DAO.

Back in the 70's Eli Isaacson wrote IOPACK in Fortran
66.  In June of 1987 Arlindo da Silva wrote Inpak77 using
Fortran 77 string functions; Inpak 77 is a vastly
simplified IOPACK, but has its own goodies not found in
IOPACK.  Inpak 90 removes some obsolete functionality in
Inpak77, and parses the whole resource file in memory for
performance.

