[fitsbits] start of Public Comment Period on the INHERIT convention

[William Thompson]

On 07/01/15 11:57, Phil Hodge wrote:
> On 07/01/2015 11:44 AM, William Thompson wrote:
>> In principle, one could have a completely empty primary header, with all the
>> metadata being stored only in the binary table header. However, I don't think
>> this would have bought us any friends.
>
> If the metadata pertain to the data in the table, the metadata should indeed be
> in the table header.  Why on earth would you put them in the primary header?

Because that's where people expect to find information about the file as a 
whole, information such as what instrument took these data, what object was 
observed, what was the start and stop time of the observation, what was the 
observing sequence run, whether this observation was part of a joint observing 
program, etc.  Requiring people to drill down into the extensions to extract 
this kind of general metadata would not be taken kindly.

> Phil
>
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-- 
William Thompson
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 671
Greenbelt, MD  20771
USA

301-286-2040
William.T.Thompson at nasa.gov