Draft of FITS standard revision 1.2 available for comment

[Don Wells]

Dear friends of FITS,

>>>>> "R.White" == Richard White <rwhite at nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov> writes:
    R.White> The NASA/Science Office of Standards and Tecnology (NOST)
    R.White> Draft Standard 100-1.2, Definition of the Flexible Image
    R.White> Transport System (FITS), is now available for review and
    R.White> comment. This is a major revision to the previous version
    R.White> 1.1 of the FITS standard that was adopted in 1995.  ..

Acting as Chair of the IAU FITS Working Group (the body which controls
the FITS standard), I want to take this opportunity to thank NASA
Headquarters, the NASA/NOST and the FITS Support Office at NASA/GSFC
for supporting this project to produce a comprehensive, definitive
version of the FITS standards. Their demonstrated will to maintain
their support of this project for so many years in the face of budget
difficulties and organizational changes is admirable.

The FITS Technical Panel (Hanisch [Chair], Schlesinger, Farris,
Greisen, Pence, Teuben, Thompson, Warnock) which produced this
document gets my highest praise for their service to the community.
The Panel asked for my opinion on several technical issues in recent
years. During those discussions I became quite aware of the
dedication, professionalism and attention to detail which has
characterized their work.

As an example of "attention to detail", I cite the subtle wording of
the last sentence in section 5.1.2.1 (Keyword) on page 15: 'For
indexed keywords with a single index the counter shall not have
leading zeroes.' Why do they say 'with a single index'?!? Well, the
answer is that, although the indexed keywords mentioned in the
document (e.g., NAXIS2, CRPIX1) obey this traditional rule, the panel
want to leave open the possibility for double-indexed keywords to have
fixed format; such keywords are likely to be needed in a future World
Coordinate System [WCS] agreement.  So, this document is not merely
codifying existing FITS practice (the formal mission of the NASA
project), it is also establishing meta-rules which prepare the path
for the evolution of FITS.

    R.White> The purpose of distributing this Draft Revision to the
    R.White> NOST FITS Standard is to provide for community review and
    R.White> comment.  The Technical Panel will review and respond to
    R.White> all comments..
    R.White> All comments should be mailed to the fitsbits exploder at
    R.White> fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu, or posted to the newsgroup
    R.White> sci.astro.fits..

I urge the entire worldwide FITS community to review this document and
comment on it in sci.astro.fits/fitsbits. The document is destined to
become the definitive response to the question 'what are the FITS
standards?' and it is, therefore, important that the official answer
should represent a true consensus of the entire astronomy community.
Public discussion in this newsgroup/mailing-list is the best way to
create and exhibit such consensus.

    R.White> .., the final version.. will.. be submitted to IAU
    R.White> Commission 5 for formal acceptance as the IAU standard.

After NOST certifies that the work of the Panel appears to represent
consensus of the community, the document will be considered by the
three regional FITS committees. After all three have approved it by
formal votes, it will be considered by the IAU FITS Working Group. The
IAUFWG has the authority, under a resolution of the IAU General
Assembly, to declare the document (by a formal vote) to be the
official version of the FITS standards, superceding the various papers
which have been published in Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplements
over the past 17 years.  I intend to argue that a version of this
document should also be published in an issue of A&A Supplements,
because it is critical to our long-term archiving strategy that the
documentation of our bitstreams should be available in archival
professional journals which will survive at least as long as our
bitstreams will survive.

-Don
-- 
  Donald C. Wells         Associate Scientist         dwells at nrao.edu
		    http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~dwells
  National Radio Astronomy Observatory                +1-804-296-0277
  520 Edgemont Road,   Charlottesville, Virginia       22903-2475 USA