[fitsbits] FITS 64-bit Integer Public Comment Period

[Peter Bunclark]

William Pence wrote:
> 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

I had thought you wanted change-requests rather than votes;

Yes for both, consider together.

Peter.