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[fitsbits] Start of the CONTINUE keyword Public Comment Period
Walter Jaffe wrote:
While I think this is a useful convention, I note that this introduces an implicit ordering of FITS headers, i.e. they have to be read in a certain order if you want to interpret them correctly. As far as I know, this is the first time such an implicit ordering has been introduced and it could conceivable cause some problems in copying/concatenating headers together. There are of course a few explicit ordering conventions i.e. you have to start with SIMPLE = T. Another case where ordering may be implicit is in a sequence of HISTORY keywords that document the order of data processing steps. In some cases time stamps may have been added to each keyword to disambiguate the order. This issue of keyword ordering was one of the main topics of debate back when this convention was first introduced back in 1993 and 1994. I doubt this CONTINUE statement will cause much trouble in practise, but before approving it we might want to consider the more general problems of implicit ordering. Keep in mind that the approval process for adding a convention to the Registry is mainly only designed to ensure that the documentation is clear and complete. If a continuation convention were to be considered for the FITS Standard, then a much more rigorous and formal approval process would be required. Bill Pence -- __________________________________________________ __________________ 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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