[fitsbits] FITS 'keyword dictionaries'

[Demitri Muna]

On 12 Apr 2014, at 1:18 PM, Thierry.Forveille at ujf-grenoble.fr wrote:

> Quoting Demitri Muna <demitri.muna at gmail.com>:
> 
>> On Apr 3, 2014, at 1:28 PM, Tom Kuiper <kuiper at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
>> 
>>> I remember seeing something like that a few years ago when I was working
>>> on this issue but had forgotten.  As I recall, the suggestion was to
>>> provide a URL for a repository with the detailed information.  I had
>>> some concerns about that though.  For example, can we count on the
>>> website being maintained?  A complete FITS header, at least, will exist
>>> as long as the FITS file exists.
>> 
>> 
>> I think this is *exactly* the correct solution. This is how HTML and XML are handled. For example, a web page might begin with:
>> 
> Well, you don't at all address Tom's worries. I think they are a serious issue...


What, that the website won't be maintained? All of these "schema" or dictionaries or whatever would be hosted at fits.gsfc.nasa.gov. If we can't count on fits.gsfc.nasa.gov as the keeper of the FITS format, then there are bigger problems. I think it's safe to assume any collection of header documentation there would be mirrored in several places, just as the FITS specification can exist if NASA were to disappear. Which it's not.

The alternative to having a central location for header documentation is to put the documentation in each file, and the FITS format hardly supports that. Or else scattered across dozens of servers, which is exactly the problem being solved.

Or did I misunderstand?

Demitri

_________________________________________
Demitri Muna

Department of Astronomy
Ohio State University

http://scicoder.org/