FITS long integer support (was Re: [fitsbits] ADASS FITS BoF on Sunday)

[Eric Greisen]

I do stand corrected - I just had AIPS declare and compute with an
INTEGER*8 and it worked on Linux (gnu compilers incl 2.95.3), Macs
(IBM compiler) and Solaris (SUN Fortran).  Only the last even issued a
warning message.  Therefore, I would support movement toward a
standard to allow 64-bit integers.  Nonetheless, since it will take
re-coding of existing packages at a time when we are all stressed
financially, I would require that there be warnings attached to the
standard to discourage its use except where it is actually needed.
Over time, of course, that discouragement becomes less needed.

All too often I have seen people get excited about "new" things and
use them for the fun of it.  FITS may be very useful as an internal
and archival format but it got those uses by adhering to the
requirements for transporting data.  The transport in internal and
archive uses is across local platforms and across time rather than
between observatories, but it is nonetheless transport.

Eric Greisen