[fitsbits] Start of the 'INHERIT' Public Comment Period

I must admit that I have serious misgivings about this particular
convention, as I think I stated in past discussions on the subject.
That's neither here nor there for the present discussion, but I
mention it to indicate that I feel it would be a bad idea to change
our mind on the principle of self-sufficient HDU headers.

Back to the present discussion:
I agree that it is a good idea to register the convention, but the
exchanges make me wonder whether we should add some components to the
registry for each convention:
- An analysis on general useability; i.e., an explicit discussion of
what will happen to a naive reader and what the prerequisites are for
proper understanding
- A general assessment as to whether the convention is recommended
for general use
The former could be provided by the submitter, the latter by the FWG.

- Arnold

Robert Hanisch wrote:
Nobody has suggested that the inherit convention shouldn't be documented
in the registry. The main issue that Bob raised earlier is whether the
IAUFWG (or anyone else for that matter) should be able to ofter any
advice, or recommendations, to potential new users of the convention,
beyond simply documenting what keywords are used by the convention.
This is a general issue that will affect a number of conventions, not
just the inherit convention. If the IAUFWG decides this would be
useful, then a mechanism for adding usage comments or recommendations
could be added to the Registry.

Bill Pence

Thanks Billl -- that is my main concern. There seem to be enough
operational difficulties with this convention that I think potential
adopters must be warned, and the caveat language we have right now is very
non-specific. A FITS reader that does not understand the column limits
convention, for example, would probably not cause any problems. A reader
that does not understand a FOREIGN extension would simply ignore it. But a
reader that encounters INHERIT, and manipulates headers with even simple
copy operations, could make a bit of a mess.

It is good to document what is out there, but we do not necessarily want to
encourage its further adoption.

Bob


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