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

[Tom McGlynn (NASA/GSFC Code 660.1)]

I knew I'd missed one of these conventions when trying to review them 
all.  No one else seems to have commented on this one either....


I'm generally pretty supportive of this proposal.  My only real 
substantive comment is that I think the algorithm should not be 
recommended but mandatory.  If someone else wants to use some other 
checksum, they can simply pick their own keyword[s].   This may not be 
possible if someone else is already using another variation, but if not, 
then I'd don't see any advantage to providing flexibility here.  There 
doesn't seem to be much cost to this one though a library that doesn't 
support it may want to delete the keywords when writing out data in case 
there has been some change.

In my categorization of standards, this one could fit in either the 
semantic or structural categories.

     Tom

Lucio Chiappetti wrote:
> ANNOUNCEMENT:  START OF FORMAL PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
>
> This is to announce the official start of a formal Public Comment Period
> on the incorporation of the CHECKSUM convention in the FITS Standard.
>
> This is for the moment the last step 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 CHECKSUM and DATASUM keywords that may be used
> to verify the integrity of an HDU
>
> The proposed text consists just
>
> - in the ADDITION of a new section 4.4.2.8 (hilighted in magenta colour)
>    describing the two keywords
>
> - in the addition of an Appendix (provisionally numbered J) describing
>    a recommended algorithm
>
> - in the insertion of relevant bibliographic references
>
>     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
>    (example shown)
>
> - If both the CHECKSUM and tiled compression proposals are approved,
>    cross references to CHECKSUM will be added where appropriate in section
>    10 (compression). This is NOT shown.
>
> The proposed draft text is available at
> http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Conventions/checksum-upd3.pdf
>
> Supporting material is provided in the FITS Convention Registry at the
> following URL http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/registry/checksum.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 on Jun 19.
>
> 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 23 June 2015 and (unless an
> extension is called) will last until July 10 in order to conclude together
> with the other reviews in progress.
>