[fitsbits] New DUMP FITS extension

[Steve Allen]

On Thu 2007-08-16T15:51:18 -0400, William Pence hath writ:
> The question is what do we (the FITS community in general, and the
> IAUFWG in particular) do now?

I don't see an urgent need to do anything, for nothing has changed.

The point of all the work done by Preben Grosbol, Don Wells, Bill
Pence, etc.  in creating the IAUFWG was to establish that there is a
standard for FITS and there is a process for approving new usages.
But as with most international agreements (including all the
similar notions on the internet such as MIME media type) there is
no means to contrain the ways in which people use, or abuse, it.

There already exist a large number of files which conform to FITS
but which are not usable except by those "who just know how".
This usage just adds one more, with the very apt name "DUMP".

Within the process there is likelihood that new usage will be created
wherein all the data and metadata are universally interpretable.
Outside the process all that can be guaranteed is that the bits are
preserved, with the implicit hope that the internal documentation
of such users is sufficient that their successors will still understand.

--
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