[fitsbits] Registry of FITS Conventions

[William Pence]

        Announcement of a new "Registry of FITS Conventions"

Since the invention of the FITS data format in the the late 1970s, many
informal FITS conventions have been developed by the user community for
various purposes.  Some well-known examples of such conventions are the ESO
HIERARCH keyword convention, the STScI/NOAO INHERIT keyword convention, the
HEASARC long string keyword convention, and the Greenbank convention.  Even
though some of these conventions are widely used, it can be difficult to
find documentation on precisely how to use them.  In an attempt to
alleviate this problem, the IAU FITS Working Group is establishing a FITS
Registry web site to provide an authoritative central location for
documenting any FITS convention.  This web site is currently located at

http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_registry.html

There is a link on that page to the rules and procedures for entering new
conventions into the Registry.  To briefly summarize the rules, anyone may
submit a convention to the Registry by preparing a document that describes
it.  This document, along with a sample FITS file that uses the convention,
will be made available on the web site for a 30-day public comment period
(to be announced on the FITSBITS email exploder). The main purpose of this
public comment period is to consider whether the submitted material about
the convention is as clear and complete as possible.

Following the public comment period, the convention will be officially
entered into the Registry.  If there is any controversy about a convention,
the IAU FWG reserves the right to hold a formal vote on whether it should be
added to the Registry.

Currently, only 1 example convention has been submitted to the Registry; it
describes a set of keywords that may be used to define the minimum and
maximum values in a column.  An announcement of the start of the Public
Comment Period on this convention will be posted here on FITSBITS shortly.

It is hoped that this Registry will become a valuable resource for the FITS
community, but this will only happen if everyone does their part in writing
up and submitting conventions to the Registry.  If you helped develop a FITS
convention in the past, please consider preparing a document to describe it.
You don't necessarily need to be one of the original developers of the
convention to submit it;  you only need to be able to clearly describe the
convention and how to use it.

If you have any questions about the purpose or procedures of this new
Registry, please either send them to me privately, or, if they are of
broad interest, post them here for the benefit of the whole newsgroup.

Bill Pence
(on behalf of the IAU-FWG)
-- 
____________________________________________________________________
Dr. William Pence                       pence at milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC Code 662       HEASARC        +1-301-286-4599 (voice)
Greenbelt MD 20771                      +1-301-286-1684 (fax)