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[fitsbits] Registry of FITS Conventions
Announcement of a new "Registry of FITS Conventions"
Since the invention of the FITS data format in the the late 1970s, many informal FITS conventions have been developed by the user community for various purposes. Some well-known examples of such conventions are the ESO HIERARCH keyword convention, the STScI/NOAO INHERIT keyword convention, the HEASARC long string keyword convention, and the Greenbank convention. Even though some of these conventions are widely used, it can be difficult to find documentation on precisely how to use them. In an attempt to alleviate this problem, the IAU FITS Working Group is establishing a FITS Registry web site to provide an authoritative central location for documenting any FITS convention. This web site is currently located at http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_registry.html There is a link on that page to the rules and procedures for entering new conventions into the Registry. To briefly summarize the rules, anyone may submit a convention to the Registry by preparing a document that describes it. This document, along with a sample FITS file that uses the convention, will be made available on the web site for a 30-day public comment period (to be announced on the FITSBITS email exploder). The main purpose of this public comment period is to consider whether the submitted material about the convention is as clear and complete as possible. Following the public comment period, the convention will be officially entered into the Registry. If there is any controversy about a convention, the IAU FWG reserves the right to hold a formal vote on whether it should be added to the Registry. Currently, only 1 example convention has been submitted to the Registry; it describes a set of keywords that may be used to define the minimum and maximum values in a column. An announcement of the start of the Public Comment Period on this convention will be posted here on FITSBITS shortly. It is hoped that this Registry will become a valuable resource for the FITS community, but this will only happen if everyone does their part in writing up and submitting conventions to the Registry. If you helped develop a FITS convention in the past, please consider preparing a document to describe it. You don't necessarily need to be one of the original developers of the convention to submit it; you only need to be able to clearly describe the convention and how to use it. If you have any questions about the purpose or procedures of this new Registry, please either send them to me privately, or, if they are of broad interest, post them here for the benefit of the whole newsgroup. Bill Pence (on behalf of the IAU-FWG) -- __________________________________________________ __________________ Dr. William Pence NASA/GSFC Code 662 HEASARC +1-301-286-4599 (voice) Greenbelt MD 20771 +1-301-286-1684 (fax) |
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