[fitsbits] Question(s) regarding development of proprietary FITS manipulation software. . .

gberz3 gberz3 at gmail.com
Sat Aug 25 17:38:18 EDT 2007


Ha!  Only Dilbert could explain it so well.  Alright, now we're
getting somewhere.  I suppose I should go back and ask a more
pertinent question.  Why in the world are interpretive images even
relevant?  Why would *anyone* present FITS data as images if they are
not image data?  Why not represent it as sound?

I guess that's what I'm getting at.  What relevance does an image have
to actual FITS data if there is no "attached" image, and what is the
proper means by which to display said image?

Michael

On Aug 24, 4:18 pm, Steve Allen <s... at ucolick.org> wrote:
> On Fri 2007-08-24T14:40:50 -0400, Michael Williams hath writ:
>
> > Alright, I've looked at RFC 4047, and I'm not much better off.
>
> Yes.
>
> I am very reticent to write this, but in the absence of a lot
> better notion of what exactly is the goal here my reaction is
> a lot like the Dilbert strip from 1995-11-17:
>
> PHB:            I want to build a relational database.
> Dilbert:        Ok. What color do you want?
> PHB:            I think mauve has the most RAM.
>
> FITS guarantees that the data will be accessible to posterity -- syntax.
> Aside from the most basic structures about storage of arrays and tables,
> FITS guarantees almost nothing about semantics.
>
> --
> Steve Allen                 <s... at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
> UCO/Lick Observatory        Natural Sciences II, Room 165    Lat  +36.99855
> University of California    Voice: +1 831 459 3046           Lng -122.06015
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