[fitsbits] XTENSION = 'FITS' proposal

[Arnold Rots]

Perry argues that the proposed FITS extension provides for a
hierarchical indexing system.  In my opinion that functionality is so
limited that it is not worth the trouble.

For a hierarchical indexing scheme to be useful one needs to be able
to construct a table with parameters and links (URLs) to individual
extensions in any file.  Being able to link extensions across files in
a table that just contains the indexing information is far superior to
the limited functionality of this proposal that only allows linking
extensions within the same file and requires the entire file to be
embedded as well.

Just my 25c...

  - Arnold Rots

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Arnold H. Rots                                Chandra X-ray Science Center
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory                tel:  +1 617 496 7701
60 Garden Street, MS 81                              fax:  +1 617 495 7356
Cambridge, MA 02138                             arots at head-cfa.harvard.edu
USA                                     http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/
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