[fitsbits] once FITS always FITS

[LC's NoSpam Newsreading account]

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007, William Pence wrote:

> Here are a few comments on several related recent FITS issues:
> 
> 1.  The EXTEND keyword:  Since the STEREO mission has started producing FITS

I posted on this in another thread.

> 2. Repeated keywords:  Since the recent discussions have made it clear 
>    that it is not a rare occurrence [...] It seems that the most we 
>    can do at this point is to strongly discourage this practice, 
>    because it is indeterminate which of the keywords will read by 
>    software systems when retrieving the value.

Yes.
Perhaps we might also add some provisions by which duplication 
of (all or a specific list of) reserved keywords is forbidden. For 
mandatory keywords this is implicitly already specified by the 
prescribed order (a double BITPIX, XTENSION or NAXIS1 or PCOUNT are 
already illegal ... a double TFIELDS, TFORMn and alike should be !)

Lucio Chiappetti

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
nospam at mi.iasf.cnr.it is a newsreading account used by more persons to
avoid unwanted spam. Any mail returning to this address will be rejected.
Users can disclose their e-mail address in the article if they wish so.