[fitsbits] start of Public Comment Period on CONTINUE Long Kwd convention

[Lucio Chiappetti]

ANNOUNCEMENT:  START OF FORMAL PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD

This is to announce the official start of a 3-week formal Public Comment 
Period on the incorporation of the well known CONTINUE Long String Keyword 
convention in the FITS Standard.

This is part of a process to incorporate the most useful and widely used 
registered conventions (which are valid FITS constructs) into the official 
definition of the standard.

The Public Comment Period on most of the "simple" conventions will be 
opening simultaneously today or at latest next Monday. Please reply to 
each topic separately mantaining the subject.

The proposed text consists for CONTINUE

- in the ADDITION of a new subsection 4.2.1.2 describing the usage
   of the CONTINUE keyword to extend string keywords on several records

- in the related editorial changes in section 4.2.1
- in the addition of a short sentence in 4.1.1
- in the addition of a cross reference in 4.4.2.4

    and has been prepared by a technical team including L.Chiappetti,
    W.Pence, A.Dobrzycki, R.A.Shaw and W.Thompson (main editor W.Pence).

- If the proposal is approved also Appendix C will be updated listing the
    new keyword, and a section H.3 will be added to Appendix H describing
    the updates and the differences with the registered convention.

    All the updates are shown in brick red colour in their current context

The proposed draft text is available at 
http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Conventions/continue-upd2.pdf

Supporting material is provided in the FITS Convention Registry at the
following URL http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/registry/continue_keyword.html

Considering that the convention(s) have been in use since several years, 
are legal FITS, were discussed on FITSBITS when the conventions were 
entered in the Registry and therefore their usage is well proven (also for 
what interoperability is concerned), the Public Comment Period is reduced 
to 3 weeks.

Also the review by FITS Working Group Executive can be speeded up and 
handled in parallel or quickly after the conclusion of the Public Comment 
Period.

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

The Public Comment Period starts today 19 June 2015 and will last formally 
for 3 weeks until July 9 included.

==================================================================
Background information on the FITS approval process

Under the "Rules and Procedures" of the IAU FITS Working Group, 
http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/iaufwg/iaufwg_rules.html, the first step in the 
official approval process of any FITS proposal will be a formal Public 
Comment Period to take place on the FITSBITS mailing list. After that the 
IAU FITS Working Group Executive will review the results. Following that 
the IAU FITS Working Group will then conduct a final vote to approve or 
disapprove the proposal.

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