[daip] Solaris/Linux AIPS directories

[Eric Greisen]

Edward Colbert writes:

 > Well, it would be equally good to have a flag in PRTTP to be able to
 > include the tables (like PL) when you write a file to FITS.  I
 > certainly don't agree that PL files are throwaway.  They contain very
 > usefuly information about BLC, TRC, contour levels, and Greyscale
 > levels of a plot, not to mention the time and effort used in making the
 > plots.  All data in aips except the raw data is able to be regenerated,
 > so that's not really the point.  The fact that I can't write PL files
 > to tape is the reason I have dragged by AIPS directories around with
 > me instead of saving them in FITS format.  The plotting package in AIPS
 > is very powerful for doing overlays but this is a major drawback of
 > using it for that.

PL files are in a format that does not lend itself in any way to the
formats available in FITS files.  Periodically we consider some
entirely new format, but none is obvious.  PL files are not tables,
involve binary, string, integer values, with many many short records
and some rather long ones of data-dependent length. I know no way that
we could transfer them and stay within the FITS standard.

Eric Greisen