[fitsbits] FITS 64-bit Integer Public Comment Period

[William Pence]

This is a reminder that the Public Comment Period on the proposal to add 
support for 64-bit integers to the FITS data format is currently open here 
on the FITSBITS mail list.   Details of this proposal are at 
http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_64bit.html

The regional FITS committees will begin voting soon on whether to accept 
this proposal, so it would be helpful to them to see more comments here on 
FITSBITS (or the sci.astro.fits newsgroup) in order to judge the level of 
community support for this major change to the FITS Standard.  Note that the 
last time a new data type was added to FITS was back in 1990 when the 32-bit 
and 64-bit floating point data types were introduced.

In particular, it would helpful to hear your opinion on the following issue 
that was raised in the previous discussions:

Are you in favor of adding support in FITS for BOTH 64-bit integer images 
and 64-bit integer table columns?  Should the FITS committees be allowed to 
vote on each of these 2 cases separately (and perhaps approve one without 
the other), or are these 2 cases so closely linked that they should only be 
considered together?

Bill Pence
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____________________________________________________________________
Dr. William Pence                          William.D.Pence at nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC Code 662         HEASARC         +1-301-286-4599 (voice)
Greenbelt MD 20771                         +1-301-286-1684 (fax)