Subject: Important FITS issues.

From: <eso!pgrosbol at fits.cx.nrao.edu>
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1991 09:24:48 GMT

Garching, Dec. 19, 1991
Dear FITS colleagues,
 First I would like to apologize for my silence during the first
months of the alt.sci.astro.fits newsgroup and fitsbits-exploder.
Unfortunately, I have been very busy with internal ESO matters which
had to have a higher priority. I hope that these issues now have
settled which would give my more time for FITS matters.
 The two most important items to be discussed in the very near future
are:
 1) Binary table extension: In order to avoid further delays in the
    official procedure to accept this extension as a standard extension,
    I urge you to get a copy of the draft proposal (e.g. through ftp or 
    the NASA FITS Support office) and read it carefully. Please post
    any comments before January 31, 1992. This would make it possible to
    include possible revisions before submitting the draft proposal to 
    the Local FITS Groups in the start of March. Note that a FITS test 
    file with a binary extension is available through ftp.
 2) Blocking: A draft proposal for blocking of FITS files on different
    media e.g. 8mm Exabyte, DDS/DAT and QIC. I would also like to call
    for comments on this proposal before January 31, 1992, in order to
    forward it to the Local FITS Groups. A very limited number of test
    tape has been made available but reports on exchange of FITS files
    on such media are welcomed.

 I will emit the official list of FITS extensions to the FITS exploder
and have the updated version available submitted to the NASA FITS
Support Office. There have been several problems for people who wanted
to reach me on my Internet address 'pgrosbol at eso.org'. These problems
unfortunately still exist and is caused by ambiguous routing
information from different nodes in USA. We hope that they can be
resolved soon but until then you may mail my on SPAN: 'ESO::PGROSBOL',
BITNET: 'PGROSBOL at DGAESO51' or UUCP: 'eso!pgrosbol'.

With my best regards and seasonal greetings,

Preben Grosbol
Chairman, IAU FITS WG