[fitsbits] Start of "Foreign File Encapsulation" Public Comment Period

[Peter Bunclark]

Doug Tody wrote:
> Hi All -
> 
> Some more quick comments are in order here.  First, what we are discussing
> is a convention, hence revisiting the design is not appropriate (unless
> someone wants to propose moving towards a standard; I probably would
> not suggest that myself in this case).  Second, on the specific issue of
> Unix-oriented concepts in the design, this is not necessarily a problem
> for something like we have here.  
<SNIP>
> 
> 	- Doug

I understand better from this and preceding comments the essential 
difference between a standard proposal and a convention registry. But 
one of the strong cases for having a convention registry is that others 
with similar needs might adopt an existing convention for their own 
purpose, thus short-cutting design and testing, and making a bigger pool 
of complying systems.

Thus, although we might not criticise a convention in the same rigorous 
was as we would a standards proposal, surely it is apposite to append a 
SHORTCOMINGS section where it is admitted that, say, this convention 
doesn't generalise very well and that some of its provisions (and I 
maintain executable is not a good idea) may not be advisable.

Pete