[fitsbits] start of Public Comment Period on blank header space 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 so called "blank header space" convention
in the FITS Standard.

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

This convention allows to reserve space for appending new keywords to a 
FITS file without the overhead to shift the data area downwards.

The proposed text consists just

- in the ADDITION of a couple new paragraphs at the end of 4.4.2.4
   after blank keywords (hilighted in fuchsia colour)

    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 a section H.3 will be added to Appendix H
   describing the update

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

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

For general considerations on the Public Comment Period, the IAUFEC
review and background information on the FITS approval process please 
refer to the announcement of Public Comment Period for CONTINUE issued 
earilier today.

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

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

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