[fitsbits] FITS substring convention

A new FITS convention for representing arrays of strings within a FITS
binary table has been submitted for public comment to the Registry of
FITS conventions at http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_registry.html.

This is actually an old FITS convention that was first described in an
appendix to the 1995 FITS binary table extension definition paper and
then in Appendix B of version 2 of the FITS Standard. This appendix was
removed from the newer version 3 of the FITS Standard that was approved
last year, under the assumption that the convention would instead be
documented in the FITS Registry.

Comments about this convention may be posted here on the FITSBITS mail
exploder or on the companion sci.astro.fits newsgroup.

Bill Pence
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Dr. William Pence
NASA/GSFC Code 662 HEASARC +1-301-286-4599 (voice)
Greenbelt MD 20771 +1-301-286-1684 (fax)