[fitsbits] reopening of Public Comment Period on the blank header space 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 blank header space convention in the FITS 
Standard document,

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 next item of the list, to be discussed NOW defines the *usage 
convention* which allows to interpret blank keywords as space set aside to 
allow insertion of new keywords.

The proposed text consists of the single last paragraph appended at the
end of section 4.4.2.4 as presented in the draft at this link
http://sax.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/FITS/Conventions/headerspace-rev.pdf

The text under review is highlighted in fuchsia. Please ignore the 
sentence in brown above, which is part of the CONTINUE convention 
currently being voted, and the text in black which is part of the current 
standard, and are included just to clarify the context.

The sentence has been condensed, simplified and reworded w.r.t. the text 
submitted to the previous PCP.

Considering that the proposal did not receive substantial objections, and 
is describing just an usage convention, 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.

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/002617.html

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

The reopened Public Comment Period starts today 21 March 2016 and will 
last until 4 April 2016, unless extensions are requested and motivated.

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