[fitsbits] FITS MIME RFC ready for review

[Arnold Rots]

Steve Allen wrote:
> On Tue 2003-06-03T11:58:15 -0700, Tim Pearson hath writ:
> > This change would mean that *any* valid FITS file could be described
> > as either image/fits or application/fits at the user's discretion.  Is
> > this the intention?
> 
> Tim is right.
> 
> In the context of the Internet Draft the distinction between
> "application/fits" and "image/fits" has always hung on the intent of
> the producer of the FITS file.  The FITSMIME mailing list spent some
> discussion on this.  My interpretation of the discussion is as
> follows.
> 
> There is a large body of existing FITS files whose intent is to
> communicate a single data array in the PHDU.  The Simple Image Access
> Protocol (SIAP) prototype created by the VO community expects to use
> "image/fits".  Taken together I believe that these justify making the
> claim over the "image/fits" entry in the IANA namespace.

Uh, does this mean that you retract your earlier proposal to change
MUST to SHOULD or is it meant to strengthen the argument?

If the latter, then I would argue that we should not put the cart
before the horse.  SIAP is a prototype and we should not design a
standard on the basis of usage in a prototype interface.

  - Arnold

> 
> --
> Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
> sla at ucolick.org      Voice: +1 831 459 3046     http://www.ucolick.org/~sla
> PGP: 1024/E46978C5   F6 78 D1 10 62 94 8F 2E    49 89 0E FE 26 B4 14 93
> 
> _______________________________________________
> fitsbits mailing list
> fitsbits at listmgr.cv.nrao.edu
> http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/mailman/listinfo/fitsbits
> 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arnold H. Rots                                Chandra X-ray Science Center
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory                tel:  +1 617 496 7701
60 Garden Street, MS 67                              fax:  +1 617 495 7356
Cambridge, MA 02138                             arots at head-cfa.harvard.edu
USA                                     http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------