From dilg@ulabsgi Sat Jan 15 13:38:17 1994 X-VM-Message-Order: (3 4 1 2 5 6 7 8 9) X-VM-Summary-Format: "%n %*%a %-17.17F %-3.3m %2d %4l/%-5c %I\"%s\"\n" X-VM-Labels: nil X-VM-VHeader: ("Resent-" "From:" "Sender:" "To:" "Apparently-To:" "Cc:" "Subject:" "Date:") nil X-VM-Bookmark: 9 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1465" "" "14" "January" "1994" "16:05:29" "GMT" "Doug Ilg" "dilg@ulabsgi" "<2h6fs9$71s@obelix.tsg.com>" "36" "Re: info on iso-8211" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994011416:05:29" "info on iso-8211" (number " " mark " Doug Ilg Jan 14 36/1465 " thread-indent "\"Re: info on iso-8211\"\n") ""] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!caen!usenet.cis.ufl.edu!usenet.ufl.edu!gatech!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!tsg.com!ulabsgi!dilg Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Organization: Telos Systems Group, Chantilly, VA Lines: 36 Message-ID: <2h6fs9$71s@obelix.tsg.com> References: <1994Jan11.104735.18187@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: ulabsgi.gsfc.nasa.gov X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1] From: dilg@ulabsgi (Doug Ilg) Subject: Re: info on iso-8211 Date: 14 Jan 1994 16:05:29 GMT Jon Tischler (zzt@ornl.gov) wrote: : My question is: is any body using this? And in particular are there any : implementations out there (for both reading and writing). : I am especially interesed in what has been done in the way of allowing : automatic display of data. By this I mean that you tell your graphing : program to read the data file, and it automatically puts up the graph that : you had in mind when you took the data. After all when you took the data, : you knew what you wanted plotted, and what the axis labels should be, and : other things like that. : Jon Tischler Solid State Division : ORNLinternet zzt@ornl.gov I know of at least one group that is using ISO-8211. There is a file format called SDTS (Spatial Data Transfer Standard) developed by the US Geological Survey and approved as a FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) by NIST. Sometime early this year, SDTS will become a mandatory standard for all Federal agencies, where feasible. (Now there's some government jargon for you!! :-) Anyway, part of the SDTS spec says something the the effect that ISO-8211 shall be used as a data encoding language for SDTS data. I can't quote it exactly, but it's something like that. You can get info about SDTS on an anon FTP server at sdts.er.usgs.gov You can contact the developers at sdts@usgs.gov Hope this helps. -Doug Ilg Hughes STX Goddard Space Flight Center From acooper@nuustak.csir.co.za Sun Jan 16 19:04:02 1994 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1737" "" "16" "January" "1994" "20:26:22" "+0200" "Antony Cooper" "acooper@nuustak.csir.co.za" "<2hc0seINN5ft@nuustak.csir.co.za>" "35" "Re: info on iso-8211" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994011618:26:22" "info on iso-8211" (number " " mark " Antony Cooper Jan 16 35/1737 " thread-indent "\"Re: info on iso-8211\"\n") "<2h6fs9$71s@obelix.tsg.com>"] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!ee.und.ac.za!csir.co.za!csir.co.za!not-for-mail Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Organization: CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa Lines: 35 Message-ID: <2hc0seINN5ft@nuustak.csir.co.za> References: <1994Jan11.104735.18187@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> <2h6fs9$71s@obelix.tsg.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: nuustak.csir.co.za From: acooper@nuustak.csir.co.za (Antony Cooper) Subject: Re: info on iso-8211 Date: 16 Jan 1994 20:26:22 +0200 dilg@ulabsgi (Doug Ilg) writes: >I know of at least one group that is using ISO-8211. There is a file format >called SDTS (Spatial Data Transfer Standard) developed by the US Geological >Survey and approved as a FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) by >NIST. Sometime early this year, SDTS will become a mandatory standard for >all Federal agencies, where feasible. (Now there's some government jargon >for you!! :-) SDTS becomes mandatory as from 15 February 1994, as far as I can recall. >Anyway, part of the SDTS spec says something the the effect that ISO-8211 >shall be used as a data encoding language for SDTS data. I can't quote it >exactly, but it's something like that. Following the US lead, other countries have been looking at using ISO 8211 as the basic mechanism for their standards for the exchange of digital geo-referenced information. Personally, I think that ISO 8211 adds an unnecessary layer of extra complexity to such standards which are inherently complex to start with, but then I am biased, as I have been involved in the development of the South African standard, and we have no plans to use ISO 8211 at this stage! :-) >You can get info about SDTS on an anon FTP server at sdts.er.usgs.gov >You can contact the developers at sdts@usgs.gov There is quite a bit of documentation and even software available from this site, some of which deals with ISO 8211 specifically. As far as I know, ISO 8211 is due to be reviewed round about now, as well. Antony -- Antony Cooper -- Internet: acooper@nuustak.csir.co.za (25 45S 28 16E) CSIR Information Services, PO Box 395, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa Voice: +27 12 8414121 $ Fax: +27 12 8413037 $ Page: (012) 3417607 code 32091 From unrza3@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Fri Jan 21 21:19:38 1994 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["574" "Wed" "12" "January" "1994" "10:00:08" "+0100" "Markus Kuhn" "unrza3@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de" "<2h0e6oEaqa@uni-erlangen.de>" "16" "Re: info on iso-8211" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994011209:00:08" "info on iso-8211" (number " " mark " Markus Kuhn Jan 12 16/574 " thread-indent "\"Re: info on iso-8211\"\n") "<1994Jan11.104735.18187@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>"] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!emory!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!nigel.msen.com!math.fu-berlin.de!news.th-darmstadt.de!fauern!rrze.uni-erlangen.de!not-for-mail Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Organization: Regionales Rechenzentrum Erlangen, Germany Message-ID: <2h0e6oEaqa@uni-erlangen.de> References: <1994Jan11.104735.18187@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> Reply-To: mskuhn@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de NNTP-Posting-Host: cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Lines: 16 From: unrza3@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (Markus Kuhn) Subject: Re: info on iso-8211 Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 10:00:08 +0100 cverond@nyx.cs.du.edu (Cristiano Verondini) writes: >I'm searching any sort of documentation on the standard >iso-8211. >Does anyone know if there is any information available in internet? No, because ISO standards are copyrighted and very expensive. But you might want to have a look at ftp.informatik.uni-erlangen.de in pub/doc/ISO/std-faq for general information about ISO standards and how to get them. Markus -- Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student «°o°» University of Erlangen, Germany Internet: mskuhn@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de | X.500 entry available From unrza3@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Fri Jan 21 21:19:51 1994 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["574" "Wed" "12" "January" "1994" "10:00:08" "+0100" "Markus Kuhn" "unrza3@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de" "<2h0e6oEaqa@uni-erlangen.de>" "16" "Re: info on iso-8211" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994011209:00:08" "info on iso-8211" (number " " mark " Markus Kuhn Jan 12 16/574 " thread-indent "\"Re: info on iso-8211\"\n") "<1994Jan11.104735.18187@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>"] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!emory!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!nigel.msen.com!math.fu-berlin.de!news.th-darmstadt.de!fauern!rrze.uni-erlangen.de!not-for-mail Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Organization: Regionales Rechenzentrum Erlangen, Germany Message-ID: <2h0e6oEaqa@uni-erlangen.de> References: <1994Jan11.104735.18187@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> Reply-To: mskuhn@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de NNTP-Posting-Host: cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Lines: 16 From: unrza3@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (Markus Kuhn) Subject: Re: info on iso-8211 Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 10:00:08 +0100 cverond@nyx.cs.du.edu (Cristiano Verondini) writes: >I'm searching any sort of documentation on the standard >iso-8211. >Does anyone know if there is any information available in internet? No, because ISO standards are copyrighted and very expensive. But you might want to have a look at ftp.informatik.uni-erlangen.de in pub/doc/ISO/std-faq for general information about ISO standards and how to get them. Markus -- Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student «°o°» University of Erlangen, Germany Internet: mskuhn@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de | X.500 entry available From jra@wolf.brl.mil Sun Jan 23 12:11:51 1994 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["869" "" "21" "January" "1994" "18:13:43" "GMT" "John R. Anderson" "jra@wolf.brl.mil" "<20939@smoke.brl.mil>" "25" "Re: info on iso-10303 (STEP) ?" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994012118:13:43" "info on iso-10303 (STEP) ?" (number " " mark " John R. Anderson Jan 21 25/869 " thread-indent "\"Re: info on iso-10303 (STEP) ?\"\n") ""] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!caen!usenet.cis.ufl.edu!eng.ufl.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.cac.psu.edu!news.pop.psu.edu!ctc.com!news.cs.umb.edu!hsdndev!admii!smoke!wolf.brl.mil!jra Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Message-ID: <20939@smoke.brl.mil> References: Reply-To: jra@brl.mil Organization: US Army Research Laboratory Lines: 25 From: jra@wolf.brl.mil (John R. Anderson (VMB) ) Sender: news@smoke.brl.mil Subject: Re: info on iso-10303 (STEP) ? Date: 21 Jan 94 18:13:43 GMT In article , joern@sima.sintef.no (Jorn Amundsen) writes: |> |> Hi Netlanders! |> |> After the great success Cristiano Verondini had on is query on |> iso-8211 i would like to ask you netlanders for any internet |> retreivable info on the iso-10303 Industrial Automation Systems, |> Product Data Representation and Exchange (STandard for the Exchange of |> Product data - STEP). |> |> Thank you --joern anonymous ftp from ftp.cme.nist.gov in directory pub/step or send email to nptserver@cme.nist.gov with the single word "help" in the body of the message. This will get you started. -- John R. Anderson Attn: AMSRL-SL-BV Internet: jra@brl.mil U.S. Army Research Laboratory Phone: (410) 278-7267 Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5068 FAX: (410) 278-5058 From warnock@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Jan 25 11:02:51 1994 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1220" "" "25" "January" "1994" "05:09:53" "GMT" "Archie Warnock" "warnock@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov" "" "23" "Re: ODL (Object Decsription Language): what is the current version?" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994012505:09:53" "ODL (Object Decsription Language): what is the current version?" (number " " mark " Archie Warnock Jan 25 23/1220 " thread-indent "\"Re: ODL (Object Decsription Language): what is the current version?\"\n") "<2i0q9c$asl@skates.gsfc.nasa.gov>"] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!emory!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.umbc.edu!haven.umd.edu!cs.umd.edu!kong.gsfc.nasa.gov!skates.gsfc.nasa.gov!Hypatia!warnock Newsgroups: sci.data.formats,gsfc.general Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- InterNetNews site Lines: 23 Message-ID: References: <2i0q9c$asl@skates.gsfc.nasa.gov> NNTP-Posting-Host: hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: warnock@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov (Archie Warnock) Subject: Re: ODL (Object Decsription Language): what is the current version? Date: 25 Jan 94 05:09:53 GMT ryan@odouls.gsfc.nasa.gov (Pat Ryan) writes: > My group has been using the Object Description Language (ODL) for >organizing data. We're currently using version 2.1 (March 1991). The >format appears to have originated at the University of Colorado. However, ODL was originally written (if I recall correctly) as part of the metadata specification for the Planetary Data System. Randy Davis at LASP at Colorado was the principal author. He's still there - I don't exactly recall his e-mail, but I can check. I think it's davis@aries.colorado.edu. You could also ask Mike Martin at JPL (mmartin@jplpds.jpl.nasa.gov) for info - he was also heavily involved >from the PDS end. I'm not sure, however, that there's any newer information on ODL itself - more work has been done on the PDS implementation of it. It's a very powerful syntax for describing data, and I don't think it's ever been fully exploited. Randy's a smart guy... -- _______________________________________________________________________ -- Archie Warnock Internet: Archie.Warnock@gsfc.nasa.gov -- Hughes STX "WAIS is the engine, WWW is the track" -- NASA/GSFC Project STELAR: WAIS to do science From thompson@serts.gsfc.nasa.gov Wed Jan 26 17:28:20 1994 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1485" "" "26" "January" "1994" "15:22:04" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson@serts.gsfc.nasa.gov" "" "38" "Re: Scientific Data Format Information FAQ" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994012615:22:04" "Scientific Data Format Information FAQ" (number " " mark " William Thompson Jan 26 38/1485 " thread-indent "\"Re: Scientific Data Format Information FAQ\"\n") "<2i5m06$sqk@ncar.ucar.edu>"] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!cs.umd.edu!skates.gsfc.nasa.gov!serts.gsfc.nasa.gov!thompson Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- InterNetNews site Lines: 38 Distribution: world Message-ID: References: <2i5m06$sqk@ncar.ucar.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: serts.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: thompson@serts.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson) Subject: Re: Scientific Data Format Information FAQ Date: 26 Jan 94 15:22:04 GMT ilana@kiowa.scd.ucar.edu (Ilana Stern) writes: >7. PDS > In recent years, the Planetary Data System (PDS) has been responsible >for archiving space mission data on CD-ROM media, using its own self- >describing data format, variously know as PDS, SFDU (Standard Formatted ^^^^ >Data Unit), or ODL (Object Description Language). ... This is an error--the term SFDU or Standard Formatted Data Unit does not refer to PDS/ODL files. Instead, the SFDU mechanism is a way of associating with a data file a label that serves as a pointer to a description of the file format. As such, a PDS/ODL file can qualify as an SFDU, but so could files in FITS, CDF, etc., or even in mission-specific file formats, so long as the format description is registered. (I like to think of SFDUs as a "Dewey decimal system" for data files. :^) ) Information on SFDUs can be obtained from CCSDS Secretariat Communications and Data Systems Division, (Code-OS) National Aeronautics and Space Administration Washington, DC 20546, USA I would like to see information on SFDUs included in the FAQ, but am not qualified to write it myself. You might try contacting Don Sawyer at NSSDCA::SAWYER or sawyer@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov to see if anyone in his office would be interested in contributing something about SFDUs for the FAQ. I myself would be really happy if some of the SFDU documentation was available online in WWW/HTML format. Bill Thompson From thompson@serts.gsfc.nasa.gov Wed Jan 26 23:58:37 1994 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["4319" "" "26" "January" "1994" "22:17:52" "GMT" "William Thompson" "thompson@serts.gsfc.nasa.gov" "" "97" "Re: FITS header cards" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994012622:17:52" "FITS header cards" (number " " mark " William Thompson Jan 26 97/4319 " thread-indent "\"Re: FITS header cards\"\n") nil] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!xanth.cs.odu.edu!news.larc.nasa.gov!lerc.nasa.gov!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.cac.psu.edu!news.pop.psu.edu!ra!cs.umd.edu!skates.gsfc.nasa.gov!serts.gsfc.nasa.gov!thompson Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- InterNetNews site Lines: 97 Distribution: world Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: serts.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: thompson@serts.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson) Subject: Re: FITS header cards Date: 26 Jan 94 22:17:52 GMT > In article <2hjl8k$sl4@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>, ron@argus.lpl.Arizona.EDU (Ron Watkins) wrote... > >I was wondering if there is support for using CRVAL and CRDELT within > >FITS tables? We have a data format that im looking into formatting into > >a FITS table. Each record (of our data) contains various values and an > >array. The values are of differing formats but the array is fixed at 126 > >single precision values representing counts at some wavelength. I had > >wanted to use CRPIX, CRVAL, and CRDELT to specify the wavelengths for the > >array but it doesn't apply to any of the other values in the table row other > >than the array. Is there FITS support for doing this? I can only find > >references for CRVAL and such in the primary HDU of the FITS files. I couldn't > >find it for the FITS extensions. and then Barry Schlesinger wrote > The above does not specify whether an ASCII table or a binary table is > intended. The proposed structure appears to fit most naturally in an > extension of type BINTABLE, where the array could appear as a single > field. There has been some talk, particularly within the single dish > community, of conventions for use of the terms CRVALn, CRPIXn and > CDELTn to describe an array contained in one field of a binary table. > Perhaps one of the people involved could step forward and say where > this discussion stands. Being one of those people, I am now stepping forward. (Sorry this took a while. You might have heard about the ice storm that paralyzed the D.C. area last week, and I've been busy catching up this week.) There have been a couple of proposals as to how to handle axis metadata. My own proposal is to define a set of keywords related to the table columns that are related to CRPIX, CRVAL, etc., but which have a format ala TDIM. These keywords are as follows: Additional Keyword Standard Equivalent TDESCn CTYPEm TROTAn CROTAm TRPIXn CRPIXm TRVALn CRVALm TDELTn CDELTm To illustrate how this would work, suppose that one had a two-dimensional array, with dimensions representing energy and time, stored in a column of a FITS binary table. First of all, we would have the following standard keywords: TTYPE2 = 'RATE ' /Observed flux count rate TFORM2 = '80E ' /Array has 80 data values, type Real*4 TUNIT2 = 'counts/s' /Units of the RATE values TDIM2 = '(8,10) ' /Array is two-dimensional In my system, the annotation for the individual dimensions are modelled after the form of TDIM, and would appear in the FITS binary table header this way: TDESC2 = '(ENERGY,TIME)' /Dimension labels TRPIX2 = '(1.0,1.0)' /Index of reference pixel TRVAL2 = '(2.5,0.0)' /Axis values at reference pixel TDELT2 = '(0.1,4.0)' /Pixel spacings along each axis However, in the time since I proposed this, the High Energy Astrophysics group at Goddard (HEASARC) has come up with an alternate plan to do the same thing. In the HEASARC system, the same information would appear as follows: 1CTYP2 = 'ENERGY ' /Dimension labels 2CTYP2 = 'TIME ' 1CRPX2 = 1.0 /Index of reference pixel 2CRPX2 = 1.0 1CRVL2 = 2.5 /Axis values at reference pixel 2CRVL2 = 0.0 1_1CD2 = 0.1 /Pixel spacings along each axis 2_2CD2 = 4.0 In other words, each keyword begins with the dimension number, and ends with the column number. The "CD" keywords really represent the elements of a coordinate transformation matrix--in this case one that only transforms the scale. This is something that comes out of the World Coordinate System, which is something fairly new in FITS. In addition, the HEASARC proposal includes the ability to express what the axis units are, e.g.: 1CUNI2 = 'keV ' /Axis units 2CUNI2 = 's ' The HEASARC people were aware of my proposal, but were concerned that the length of the strings would be too long. Also, they preferred that a single FITS keyword point to a single value, rather than an array of values. The downside of the HEASARC approach is that it takes more space than mine. You should be able to get more information about the HEASARC approach from William Pence (pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov). Hope this is of help, Bill Thompson From bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Fri Jan 28 20:22:42 1994 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1451" "" "28" "January" "1994" "17:14" "EDT" "BARRY M. SCHLESINGER" "bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" "<28JAN199417141420@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov>" "34" "Re: Scientific Data Format Information FAQ" "^From:" nil nil "1" "1994012821:14:00" "Scientific Data Format Information FAQ" (number " " mark " BARRY M. SCHLESIN Jan 28 34/1451 " thread-indent "\"Re: Scientific Data Format Information FAQ\"\n") ""] nil) Path: saips.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!concert!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!cs.umd.edu!skates.gsfc.nasa.gov!nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov!bschlesinger Newsgroups: sci.data.formats Organization: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center Lines: 34 Distribution: world Message-ID: <28JAN199417141420@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov> References: <2i5m06$sqk@ncar.ucar.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Summary: SFDU information in a week or so Keywords: SFDU News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 From: bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (BARRY M. SCHLESINGER) Subject: Re: Scientific Data Format Information FAQ Date: 28 Jan 1994 17:14 EDT In article , thompson@serts.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson) writes... >...the SFDU mechanism is a way of associating with a >data file a label that serves as a pointer to a description of the file format. >As such, a PDS/ODL file can qualify as an SFDU, but so could files in FITS, >CDF, etc., or even in mission-specific file formats, so long as the format >description is registered. > >... > There is also a control authority structure and procedure for registering descriptions. > >I would like to see information on SFDUs included in the FAQ, but am not >qualified to write it myself. You might try contacting Don Sawyer at > > NSSDCA::SAWYER >or > sawyer@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov > >to see if anyone in his office would be interested in contributing something >about SFDUs for the FAQ. I myself would be really happy if some of the SFDU >documentation was available online in WWW/HTML format. Don Sawyer and the other major players are on their way (if the ice storm didn't mess up their travel) to a CCSDS sponsored meeting on SFDU, control authorities, and registration in Japan next week (31 January - 4 February). Because of the usual pre-meeting rush, complicated by facility closings due to weather, they haven't had time to answer. They should have something to say about plans for on-line SFDU documentation when they get back. Barry Schlesinger NOST FITS Support Office.