[fitsbits] start of Public Comment Period on the column limits 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 colum limit (aka TLMIN TLMAX) 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 defines the TLMINn/TLMAXn and TDMINn/TDMAXn keywords 
describing the minimum and maximum values in table columns

The proposed text consists just

- in the ADDITION of a new section 4.4.2.7 (hilighted in violet colour) 
  describing the four keywords

- in the addition of CROSS REFERENCES to it in 7.2.2 and 7.3.2 (resp.
  for ASCII and binary tables)

   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, and the keywords will be listed in Appendix C

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

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