On Mon 2007-07-30T20:25:53 -0700, gberz3 hath writ:
I'm currently working with a client that needs to manipulate FITS
files.

Neverminding the rest, what does the client mean by FITS files?

No two creators of FITS files produce them the same way. Some are
tables, some are images, some are extracts of relational databases,
some are all of the above.

This was the major challenge that inspired the FITS MIME types, and it
was a challenge that in the end MIME could not handle. There is not
yet any way to tell a machine what sort of processing and display is
appropriate to do with any given FITS file.

--
Steve Allen WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99855
University of California Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m