Subject: Version 0.3b FITS Draft NOST standard

From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry Schlesinger)
Date: 27 Dec 91 21:33:00 GMT

Version 0.3b of the NASA/OSSA Office of Standards and
Technology (NOST) Draft Standard for Implementation of the Flexible
Image Transport System (FITS) is now available on the National Space
Science Data Center computers.  This version is the result of the
Technical Panel review of the comments received on version 0.2 of the
standard during the period June-September 1991.  The most significant
changes are elimination of the restriction on alphabetic characters to
upper case in table field names (value of TTYPEn keywords) and
replacement of the informational appendix describing the AIPS A3DTABLE
construct with text describing the BINTABLE binary tables proposal.  
Given the nature of the comments received, the Panel concluded that, 
only minor revisions, if any, to version 0.3 would be necessary before 
it could be submitted to the NOST Accreditation Panel for approval as 
a NASA Standard and to the IAU FITS Working Group for endorsement as 
the Standard for FITS.  No general community comment period is 
envisioned, although comments or questions can be sent to the address 
at the end of this announcement.
	Version 0.3b is being reviewed by the Technical Panel to
ensure that that it properly incorporates the Panel decisions.  When
that review is complete, a revised version will be announced and
released, if necessary; any differences from version 0.3b are likely
to be small.  The new version is being made generally available now to
allow those individuals or groups who may have been using earlier
drafts as a reference on FITS, in spite of their provisional status,
to replace their copies of the earlier draft with the improved one. 
As before, the form of the Standard is not final and should not be
considered to supersede the existing FITS documentation. 
	As of this announcement, only the ftp version is available,
although hard copies should be available from the NOST librarian in
1-2 weeks.    The procedure for ftp access is the same as before. 
Copies are available in LaTeX, PostScript, and flat ASCII.  The NSSDCA
computer is a VAX/VMS 9410; therefore, file names are case
insensitive, and disks and subdirectories are designated as
ANON_DIR:[FITS] for the disk "ANON_DIR" and the directory "FITS". 
Retrieve the README. file first.  It describes the files in the FITS
directory and provides more detail on session and retrieval 
procedures.

                      Internet (TCP/IP)            SPAN (DECnet)
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Name:            NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV          NSSDCA
    Address:         128.183.36.23                  6.133  (6277)

   ----------------------------------------------------------------------

===============================================================================
==             default DECnet README. copy via SPAN                 ==
===============================================================================
ndadsa $ copy/log nssdca::anon_dir:[fits]readme. *
%COPY-S-COPIED, NSSDCA::ANON_DIR:[FITS]README.;1 copied to
                                                 DISKA":[MEV]README.;2 (1 block)
===============================================================================
==             Anonymous FTP README. copy via Internet              ==
===============================================================================
ndadsa $ ftp nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov

NDADSA.GSFC.NASA.GOV MultiNet FTP user process 2.2(100)
Connection opened (Assuming 8-bit connections)
<NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV MultiNet FTP Server Process 2.2(11) at Mon 24-Dec-90
 9:17AM-EST

NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV>user anonymous
<anonymous user ok. Send real ident as password.

Password: MEV at NDADSA.GSFC.NASA.GOV
<Guest User MEV at NDADSA.GSFC.NASA.GOV logged into ANON_DIR:[000000] at Mon
 24-Dec-90 09:17, job 202003a1.
<Directory and access restrictions apply

NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV>cd fits
<Connected to ANON_DIR:[FITS].

NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV>get readme.;1 readme.
<VMS retrieve of ANON_DIR:[FITS]README.;1 started.
<Transfer completed.  316 (8) bytes transferred.

NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV>quit
<QUIT command received. Goodbye.

======================================================================
For further information send electronic mail to the FITS Support
office at
	(DECnet) 	NCF::FITS
	(Internet)	fits at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov

or telephone at (301)513-1634.  The telephone is equipped with a voice
mail system to take messages from touch tone phones if no one answers.