[fitsbits] Output array type when BZERO is an integer {External}

[Barrett, Paul]

I'll ask this question one more time and then I'll let it go.

I understand that the default behaviour for BZERO and BSCALE creates a
floating point array because of the typical upconversion rules. However,
I'm not clear about the data type for the special case where BZERO is an
integer. In this case, it appears that BZERO is added first to the integer
array before converting it to a floating point array, because BSCALE = 1.0
implies upconversion. Is this correct?


As for your comments:

* I disagree with your first comment. FITS is used because of peer
pressure. It is mandated by NASA. That means a large sector of the
community HAS to use it.
* Yes, dynamic languages are dynamic enough. In the case of Julia, it can
do everything that C/C++, FORTRAN, and Python can do. *Think of Julia as
Python with Numba built-in.*

 -- Paul

On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 9:39 AM Seaman, Robert Lewis - (rseaman) via
fitsbits <fitsbits at listmgr.nrao.edu> wrote:

> Howdy,
>
>
>
> It is always good to see a spirited FITS discussion! A few more peppy
> points:
>
>
>
>    - There is always an assertion that it would be preferable to use a
>    “modern” format
>
>
>    - Yet projects often end up using FITS
>       - This choice does not result from peer pressure
>
>
>
>    - There is nothing magic about IEEE floating point or twos-complement
>    integers
>
>
>    - Efficient (compressed) data representations may not even be binary
>       (Rice is unary)
>       - Are dynamically typed languages dynamic enough?
>
>
>
>    - A tile-compressed image is a simple binary table
>
>
>    - My first encounter with FITS data (c. 1983) was writing a FITS image
>       reader from scratch by consulting the original journal article(s) (possibly
>       also my first encounter with C)
>       - I am confident young Rob could have written a reader for
>       tile-compressed binary data with little more effort (or code) just from
>       reading the current FITS standard
>
>
>
>    - FITS documentation is pretty good
>
>
>    - (Comments about other projects’ documentation omitted)
>
>
>
>    - Most FITS discussions/disagreements are about metadata
>
>
>    - Only a small minority of FITS metadata is strictly required to
>       enforce the structure of each extension
>       - Science metadata (astronomical and computer science) would be
>       legal (and trivial) to represent, using any schema you like, in a binary
>       table structure, described in a convention or appendix or chapter of the
>       standard
>       - Schemata could also include language-specific pragma, for
>       data-typing purposes or otherwise
>
>
>
>    - It is perhaps peer pressure that pushes projects to use 80-char
>    ASCII header keywords in 2880-byte records
>
>
>    - Consider, rather, what is the optimal tiled representation for your
>       project, and separately
>       - How can your project’s (and community) metadata best be
>       represented in a schema realized as a binary table?
>
>
>
> Rob
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> fitsbits mailing list
> fitsbits at listmgr.nrao.edu
> https://listmgr.nrao.edu/mailman/listinfo/fitsbits
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listmgr.nrao.edu/pipermail/fitsbits/attachments/20240312/1682d848/attachment.html>