[fitsbits] 64-bit integers

[William Pence]

Walter Jaffe wrote:
> I support the proposal if anyone has an application to which 64-bit
> integers are relevant.  Whether any particular computer or software
> application can handle 64-bit integers (in "native" form) is mostly
> irrelvant, since FITS is a transport medium, not a local internal
> format.

The data analysis software used by the high energy astrophysics community 
generally uses FITS as the internal analysis format as well as the archive 
format.  Many of the analysis packages used by the UV/optical/IR research 
community also use FITS as the primary internal format.  The radio research 
community on the otherhand still seems to largely follow the model of only 
using FITS as an archive or transport format.

Bill
-- 
____________________________________________________________________
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)