[fitsbits] Proposed Changes to the FITS Standard

[Craig Markwardt]

William Pence <pence at milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov> writes:
> ... There are only 3
> proposed new absolute requirements in this list:
> 
>   1. Keywords that have a value shall not be repeated in a header.
> 
>   2. PCOUNT and GCOUNT must immediately follow the last NAXISn
>      keyword in all conforming extensions (as is already required
>      in IMAGE, TABLE, and BINTABLE extensions).
> 
>   3. Embedded space characters are now forbidden within numeric
>      values in an ASCII Table (e.g.  "1 23 4.5"  is no longer
>      allowed to represent the decimal value 1234.5)
> 
> The public comment period on these, as well as all the other
> recommended changes, remains open here on this email list/newsgroup
> until at least the end of September...

Another proposed change, the case of the EXTEND keyword being made
optional, will also impose a software-change burden.  Software which
previously relied on that keyword will now be required to check for
the presence of extensions in a different way.

Craig