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

[THIERRY FORVEILLE]

> 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.
> 
Could we get a summary of the arguments for merging the CONTINUE convention
into the standard? Up to now I have only seen (valid) reasons not to do
so, and unless I hear good counterarguments I would probably vote No.