We introduced an experimental prototype in 1998 at the Modernized Product
Workshop as a way  to create new innovative text products.  The field
forecasters picked up on this new approach which, like Smart Tools, uses
Python to make it extendable and easy to customize to the Local site.  They
explored the use of this technology to create new products as well as to work
with the legacy text products. This approach became so popular that in August
2002, the NWS asked FSL in concert with field forecasters to write a set of
core products as an alternative to the existing products. This was quite an
undertaking and the first thing we did was to form a Focus Group of about 25
motivated forecasters who had been working with the text product framework.