[fitsbits] start of Public Comment Period on blank header space convention

[William Thompson]

I have to admit, I don't understand why this should rise to the level of being 
incorporated into the standard.  The only purpose seems to be to reserve space 
within a header while the file is being actively updated, to avoid overwriting 
data if the header spills over a 2880 byte block boundary.  Once the data 
processing is complete, and the file is ready to be delivered to the public or 
archive, this doesn't really seem to be very useful any more.

The FITS standard already allows this possibility, so adding this text doesn't 
change the standard; it only suggests a possible usage for something that's in 
the standard.

Bill Thompson


On 06/19/15 06:24, Lucio Chiappetti wrote:
> 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.
>

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

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