[wfc] Re: Checksum proposal (Greisen)

[Don Wells]

Arnold Rots writes:
 > Eric Greisen wrote:
 > > .., "standards" are to be published in A&A..
 > 
 > I am somewhat puzzled by your mentioning this rule.  I am not aware of
 > its existence and, as far as I know, the Y2k standard, for instance,
 > was never published that way..

There are at least two precedents for agreements which are added to
the FITS standards without A&A publication: (1) the 1989 Floating
Point Agreement and (2) the 1997 Y2K DATExxxx Agreement. (Both were
incorporated into the NOST FITS Standard, which was published in A&A
in 2001.)  FITS Agreements become effective immediately when the final
votes of the IAU-FWG on their resolutions are announced. Neither
publication nor endorsement by the IAU General Assembly is needed,
although both are good features to add to the process.

-Don Wells [Chair, IAU-FWG]
-- 
  Donald C. Wells      Scientist - GBT Project        dwells at nrao.edu
                    http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~dwells
  National Radio Astronomy Observatory                +1-434-296-0277
  520 Edgemont Road,   Charlottesville, Virginia       22903-2475 USA
       (DCW is often in Green Bank, West Virginia, at +1-304-456-2146)