[fitsbits] FITS Binary Table Proposals

In response to the comments received so far during the official Public
Comment Period on the proposals to incorporate the TDIMn and variable length
array conventions for FITS binary tables into the official FITS Standard, I
have created new detailed drafts of the proposals which are available at

http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/bintable_proposals.html

In particular, these new drafts contain the following changes:

1. As recommended by Tom McGlynn, the drafts now specify precisely the
wording that should be inserted into the FITS Standard.

2. As recommended by Bob Garwood, the TDIMn convention has been extended
slightly to allow the size of the array as given by the product of the
dimensions to be "less than or equal" to the allocated array size in the
FITS file.

3. As recommended by Francois Ochsenbein, a cautionary phrase has been added
to warn users that the variable length array convention may present
difficulties for applications that ingest FITS files via a sequential input
stream.

The wording of these proposals may still not be optimal, so any further
suggestions are welcome.


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)