Hi Bill,

About the Variable Length Array proposal, I would
propose the following modification of the "proviso":

"Because the Variable Length Array format disables the capability of
consuming FITS files in data streams (all table rows and potentially the
whole 'heap' has to be read in order to be able to process the first
row),
the producers of FITS data products should consider the capabilities of
the likely recipients of their files when deciding whether or not to use
this format, and as a general rule should use it only in cases where it
provides significant advantages over the simpler fixed length array
format."

Would that be agreeable ? It could be noticed that recommending
to store the data in the heap in the same order as the records
(i.e. the "pointers" have values increasing with the ordinal
row number, except in the case where a "pointer" indicates
a value already specified in a previous row if a data array
is shared by several rows) would minimize the quantity of data
to read and store before the first row can be processed.

--Francois
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Francois Ochsenbein
CDS, Strasbourg
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