[iaufwg] New draft FITS Standard

[Mark Calabretta]

On Wed 2007/11/14 16:56:32 CDT, William Pence wrote
in a message to: IAU-FWG <iaufwg at nrao.edu>

>I propose that we allow 2 weeks, until November 28th, for the IAU FWG 
>members to review these documents.  Assuming no major issues are raised, 

  5. It would be useful for the FITS 3.0 document to list
     inconsistencies in syntax [between previous versions of the
     Standard] in an appendix, e.g. such as the requirement for a
     slash between value and comment introduced at version 2.0.
     (Mark Calabretta)

     Technical Panel's Response: (N) The panel has declined to do this
     because it would require a significant effort to compile a list of
     all the changes in the previous versions of the FITS Standard and
     because the resulting list would primarily only be of historical
     interest.

When you say it is of "historical interest", that is true in so far
as "once FITS always FITS" is a statement of intent concerning the
preservation of data.  But if you expect FITS readers to be able to
interpret historical FITS files then it is not simply of "academic
interest".

However, rather than an appendix, I suggest using footnotes because the
information would be closer to where it's needed and because there need
not be any implication of completeness.  In any case, I think that some
effort should be made and that it should not be too onerous, there
can't be that many of them.

Mark Calabretta