Deprecation of Random Groups

[Bill Cotton]

   I'd like to support Tim Pearson's proposed solution to the
"deprecation" problem:

> Perhaps everybody would be happy with a slight change of wording, such
> as: "The binary table extension can accommodate the structure
> described by random groups, and offers advantages over the random
> groups format, so it is recommended for new applications," rather than
> "its [random groups format's] use for future applications has been
> deprecated", with the implication (Section 3) that a "deprecated"
> structure is "obsolete".

   While it's true that Random Groups are in a sense a subset of
binary tables with a different header and are therefore redundant,
it's also true that Random Groups have a long history, as long as FITS
images, and are deeply entrenched in the radio interferometry
community.  As Tim points out, a FITS reader is merely a front end to
a program that understands the contents of the file.  Having a more
widely understood format (e.g. binary tables) is of little use if the
underlaying software is unable to make sensible use of the
information. Specialized software will always be necessary for
complicated data such as interferometer visibility measurements.
Software issues have gotten so politicized in recent years that the
additional burden of needing "obsolete" data formats is an undesirable
complication.  

   As an amusing historical note, binary tables were invented for the
purpose of attaching calibration data to Random Groups files.

-Bill Cotton