[fitsbits] reopening of Public Comment Period on the CHECKSUM convention

[Lucio Chiappetti]

ANNOUNCEMENT:  START OF FORMAL PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD

This is to announce the official reopening of a formal Public Comment 
Period on the incorporation of the CHECKSUM convention in the FITS 
Standard.

A previous PCP was held in June-July (started on 23 Jun 2015).

The team in charge of the incorporation of the most useful, widely used, 
registered, and simple conventions into the official definition of the 
standard has continued its work taking into account the comments received.

We are now re-opening the Public Comment Period to collect comments on the 
modified text, ONE CONVENTION AT A TIME. When the PCP is over, IAUFWG will
vote on the first convention, while the next one will be offered for 
public comments, and so on.

The first convention to be discussed NOW defines the CHECKSUM and DATASUM 
keywords that may be used to verify the integrity of an HDU

The proposed text consists just

- in the ADDITION of a new section now numbered 4.4.2.7 (hilighted in
   magenta colour)  describing the two keywords.

   The section has been re-titled, and the text order re-arranged to
   avoid repetitions and re-worded to meet the raised comments

- in the addition of an Appendix (provisionally numbered J) describing
   a recommended algorithm.

   This is virtually unchanged, except that improper references to FITS
   "file" now point correctly to FITS "HDU".

- the relevant bibliographic references, and appendices C and H.3 will be
   updated accordingly at the end of the convention incorporation procedure
   (this text is NOT shown)

The updated draft text is available at 
http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Conventions/checksum-rev2.pdf

Supporting material for the PREVIOUS public comment period announcement
can be retrieved from the FITSBITS archives
https://listmgr.nrao.edu/pipermail/fitsbits/2015-June/002644.html

Please review the text carefully and post any comments, criticisms, or 
suggestions on the FITSBITS mailing list.

==================================================================

The Public Comment Period starts today 17 December 2015 and will last 
until July 10 January 2016.


Please accept my best wishes for the coming holidays and the new year.

-- 
Lucio Chiappetti - INAF/IASF - via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano (Italy)
for IAU FWG (prorogated)