[fitsbits] complex integers ? (was 64-bit ...)

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On Fri, 13 May 2005, William Pence wrote:

> > ...and while on the subject, can anyone explain the purpose of 
> > "integer complex" keyvalues?
 
Complex variables is another thing I've never used in real life (only 
once as a student doing a very naive model of the hydrogen atom, and 
once playing a Mandelbrot set generation program) :-)

> The FITS format was modeled on the available Fortran formats, and the 
> Fortran complex constant is defined as "a pair or real or integer 
> constants."

I've checked a couple of manuals, and yes ... constants are written in 
the source code as (real,real) or (integer,integer), but complex 
variables are stored as a couple of REAL values, and syntax rules for 
REAL constants apply, so it's a mere formatting issue ...

... it's simpler to write i as (0,1) that (0.0E+00,1.0E+00) :-)

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