[fitsbits] Start of the 'INHERIT' Public Comment Period

[Arnold Rots]

I must admit that I have serious misgivings about this particular
convention, as I think I stated in past discussions on the subject.
That's neither here nor there for the present discussion, but I
mention it to indicate that I feel it would be a bad idea to change
our mind on the principle of self-sufficient HDU headers.

Back to the present discussion:
I agree that it is a good idea to register the convention, but the
exchanges make me wonder whether we should add some components to the
registry for each convention:
- An analysis on general useability; i.e., an explicit discussion of
what will happen to a naive reader and what the prerequisites are for
proper understanding
- A general assessment as to whether the convention is recommended
for general use
The former could be provided by the submitter, the latter by the FWG.

  - Arnold

Robert Hanisch wrote:
> > Nobody has suggested that the inherit convention shouldn't be documented
> > in the registry.  The main issue that Bob raised earlier is whether the
> > IAUFWG (or anyone else for that matter) should be able to ofter any
> > advice, or recommendations, to potential new users of the convention,
> > beyond simply documenting what keywords are used by the convention.
> > This is a general issue that will affect a number of conventions, not
> > just the inherit convention.  If the IAUFWG decides this would be
> > useful, then a mechanism for adding usage comments or recommendations
> > could be added to the Registry.
> > 
> > Bill Pence
> 
> Thanks Billl -- that is my main concern.  There seem to be enough
> operational difficulties with this convention that I think potential
> adopters must be warned, and the caveat language we have right now is very
> non-specific.  A FITS reader that does not understand the column limits
> convention, for example, would probably not cause any problems.  A reader
> that does not understand a FOREIGN extension would simply ignore it.  But a
> reader that encounters INHERIT, and manipulates headers with even simple
> copy operations, could make a bit of a mess.
> 
> It is good to document what is out there, but we do not necessarily want to
> encourage its further adoption.
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
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> 
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Arnold H. Rots                                Chandra X-ray Science Center
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory                tel:  +1 617 496 7701
60 Garden Street, MS 67                              fax:  +1 617 495 7356
Cambridge, MA 02138                             arots at head.cfa.harvard.edu
USA                                     http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/
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