Subject: WFC vote during week of May 24-28

From: dwells (Don Wells)
Date: Tue, 18 May 93 17:17:50 EDT

Dear WGAS FITS Committee members,

The BINTABLE document has been modified as a result of the questions
raised by several people when I tried to schedule the vote in April.
The most recent version is available in the anonymous-FTP archive on
fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8] in directory /FITS/Documents as the
files

                145877 May 18 16:29 X_bintable2.ps
                 38591 May 18 16:27 X_bintable2.tex 

Bill Cotton says that this ".. revised version of the FITS binary
table draft.. reflects all the comments I've gotten.  I've reordered
the appendices and decoupled the TDIMnn and SSTR conventions.. There
were a number of mostly cosmetic, typesetting changes and a couple
more sentences restating the obvious." 

Preben Grosbol and Bob Hanisch have examined the document and
commented on it. I have considered these comments, and have discussed
them with Bill Cotton, and I see no need for any further revisions to
the document before taking a vote.

Therefore, I propose to hold the WGAS FITS Committee vote on the three
FITS proposals next week, probably with a closing date on Friday May
28, ten days from now (please don't send your votes until I call for
them). If anyone objects to this schedule for any reason please tell
me by Email.

* The WFC BINTABLE vote will be on the basic BINTABLE extension as
described in the May 18 file, not including the three appendices.

* The WFC IMAGE vote will be on the IMAGE extension as described in
the files

                94980 Jun  4  1992 X_image.ps
                12973 Mar 12  1992 X_image.tex

The wording associated with PCOUNT and GCOUNT in this document implies
the possibility of an image extension containing multiple images.
Preben Grosbol tells me that the European FITS Committee discussed
this at its annual meeting in Garching on April 26, and concluded that
"On the IMAGE extension, we would suggest to freeze PCOUNT=0 and
GCOUNT=1 to make it simple." I recommend this also. I see no need to
revise the draft document, because the IAU FITS committee can, and
surely will, revise the wording of the document before final passage.

* The WFC Blocking vote will be on the blocking proposal as described in
the file

                 2183 Oct  1  1991 FITS_blocking90.txt

Preben Grosbol tells me that the European FITS Committee still
endorses this proposal.

                -*-

I myself regard the BINTABLE appendices as work-in-progress, because
interchange has not been demonstrated for these layered conventions.
That is why our vote will not formally endorse them. However, the work
done on these conventions, and the resulting minor changes in the
wording of the basic BINTABLE proposal, give us confidence that the
basic BINTABLE design is sound. BINTABLE will be able to evolve for
many years to come, supporting these and other layered conventions.

I intend to vote YES on all three proposals.

Again, if any of you have any problems with the proposals or with
voting ten days from now, please tell me by Email.

Best regards,
Don

Donald C. Wells             Associate Scientist        [email-masked]
National Radio Astronomy Observatory                   +1-804-296-0277
520 Edgemont Road                                 Fax= +1-804-296-0278
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