[fitsbits] reopening of Public Comment Period on the column limits convention

[Lucio Chiappetti]

ANNOUNCEMENT:  START OF FORMAL PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD

This is to announce the official reopening of a formal Public Comment 
Period on the incorporation of the column limit convention (aka TLMIN 
TLMAX) in the FITS Standard.

A previous PCP was held in June-July (started on 19 Jun 2015).

We are now re-opening the Public Comment Period to collect comments on the 
modified text of the various conventions.

The third convention of the list, to be discussed NOW defines the reserved
TLMINn/TLMAXn and TDMINn/TDMAXn keywords describing the minimum and 
maximum values in table column.

The proposed text consists of the insertion of very similar but not 
identical text describing the 4 keywords, in 7.2.2 for ASCII tables and in 
7.3.2 for binary tables. This is the text in violet colour respectively in 
the first 2 pages and the 3rd page of the updated draft text available at 
http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Conventions/minmax-rev.pdf

The relocation of the text from chapter 4 in two places of chapter 7 is a 
difference w.r.t. the earlier version, requested during the previous PCP. 
A typo in 7.3.2 was fixed, and the case of TDMIN > TDMAX or TLMIN > TDMAX 
as signature for undefined values is no longer described.

Considering that the proposal did not receive any substantial objections, 
but just the suggestions accepted as above, I am reopening the PCP for TWO 
WEEKS (in order to speed up the cumulative process dealing with all 
conventions), but this can be extended if requested and motivated.

- as usual appendices C and H.3 (not shown) will be updated accordingly at
   the end of the entire convention incorporation procedure

Please review the text carefully and post any comments, criticisms, or
suggestions on the FITSBITS mailing list.

Supporting material for the PREVIOUS public comment period announcement
can be retrieved from the FITSBITS archives starting from
https://listmgr.nrao.edu/pipermail/fitsbits/2015-June/002619.html

==================================================================

The reopened Public Comment Period starts today 2 February 2016 and will 
last until 15 February 2016, unless extensions are requested and 
motivated.

-- 
Lucio Chiappetti - INAF/IASF - via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano (Italy)
for IAU FWG (prorogated)