Subject: Vote on the three FITS proposals

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 19:52:54 +0100

Garching, Feb. 18, 1994

Dear IAU-FWG members,
 There has not been much progress in the exchange test of the new
extensions. The current status is as follows:

  BINTABLE:  ESO samples       read by  FTOOLS
             ST-ScI samples    read by  ESO-MIDAS

  IMAGE:     ESO samples       read by  FTOOLS
             ST-ScI samples    read by  ESO-MIDAS

 I would like to thank W.Pence and N.Zarate for participating in the
exchange tests. Although the ST-ScI samples of BINTABLEs do not
include 3-D array elements I feel that these exchange tests provide
the minimum acceptable level required for technical validation of the
BINTABLE and IMAGE extensions.

 With respect to the blocking proposal, it have been tested internal in
ESO between different systems. However, not true exchange has taken
place on media which require a fixed blocksize different from 2880 bytes
e.g. QIC-24.

 We cannot wait much longer! I would therefore propose that anyone who
would not accept this level of interchange test object before March 1.
If there are not objections, we will proceed with the voting procedure
with the following deadlines. Any request for change of wording should
be submitted before March 11.  We will then have a formal vote with a 
deadline of March 31 if no major issues are raised.

Best regards,

Preben Grosbol
Chairman, IAU FITS WG