[fitsbits] further reopening of Public Comment Period on the CONTINUE convention

[William Pence]

The IAUFWG suspended its vote on the CONTINUE convention a couple weeks 
ago to allow for further public discussion here on FITSBITS about some 
remaining issues.  It seems odd, therefore, that no significant 
discussion has taken place.  If anyone has any remaining objections 
about the wording of the current proposal (which can be viewed at 
http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Conventions/continue-rev2.pdf), 
then please state them is here on FITSBITS, so that the wider FITS 
community can participate in the discussion and contribute to finding a 
satisfactory resolution to the issue.

At least one of the issues seemed to concern the possible negative 
impact on existing software that could occur if some of the currently 
defined string keywords (e.g., OBJECT or TELESCOPE) were allowed to be 
continued to have a length greater than the current maximum length of 68 
characters.  To mitigate this potential problem, I recently suggested 
adding a restriction on the use of the CONTINUE convention, such as:

"The CONTINUE keyword must not be used with of any of the mandatory or 
reserved keywords defined in this standard unless explicitly stated 
otherwise."

Would adding this restrictive language to the current proposal make it 
acceptable to everyone?  If not, please speak up.

-Bill
-- 
____________________________________________________________________
Dr. William Pence    Astrophysicist     William.Pence at nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC Code 662     [Emeritus]       +1-301-286-4599 (voice)
Greenbelt MD 20771                      +1-301-286-1684 (fax)