Comments on NOST FITS Standard 1.2

[Bill Cotton]

   I would like to raise a strenuous objection to the "deprecation" of
the random groups format in the current draft NOST FITS definition
document.  I'm not sure exactly what the term "deprecated" means but
I interpret it as implying that it will be disallowed at some point
in the future.
   Random groups FITS format is used heavily by the radio
interferometry community to contain interferometer data.  A few years
ago it was thought that binary tables would replace random groups as
the primary format for interferometer data but this has not happened
and is unlikely to happen for the foreseeable future.  A format
actively used by a nontrivial fraction of the astronomical community
should not be deprecated. 

-Bill Cotton