A question about integer valued header keywords

[John E. Davis]

   What is the precision of an integer in the header?  I have not seen
this question addressed anywhere in the fits documentation.  I am
concerned because the C Fitsio library defines the function `ffpkyj'
which is prototyped

int ffpkyj(fitsfile *fptr, char *keyname, long value, char *comm, int *status);

The problem with this is that `long' is system dependent: sizeof(long) == 4
on a 32 bit system and sizeof(long) == 8 on a 64 bit system.  This
means that I could easily create a fits file on a 64 bit system that
cannot be correctly parsed on a 32 bit system.
-- 
John E. Davis                   Center for Space Research/AXAF Science Center
617-258-8119                    MIT 37-662c, Cambridge, MA 02139
http://space.mit.edu/~davis