Subject: Re: Year 2000

From: thompson at stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson, code 682.1, x2040)
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 14:07:00 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.231536.5504 at nrao.edu>, cflatter at nrao.edu writes...
>Dates in FITS are stored using two digits for the year.  Has anyone thought
>about what happens in 2000?
> 
>	Chris Flatters
>	cflatter at nrao.edu

I've been looking into this for the SOHO program.  Currently, I've been looking
into a CCSDS standard "Time Code Formats" CCSDS 301.0-B-2.  I believe this is
also an ISO standard, but the number eludes me right now.  Basically, the
standard allows you to enter dates in the form, e.g.

			    1992-08-27T10:03:38.123

There's also an alternate form that allows you to use day-of-year rather than
month and day.  Either the date or time part can be left out, in which case the
"T" separater is omitted.  The fractional seconds is optional, and can be to
any precision desired.

Although I like FITS, and plan to use it, I find the eight character limit very
constraining.  As one person I work with said, "It's like programming in
FORTRAN 2".

Bill Thompson