[iaufwg] Final FITS review comments

[William Pence]

I don't think it is clear yet that an "Audit Trail" web page is the best 
way to handle this.   What is it that we are really trying to achieve? 
Do we want an exhaustive list of every change that has been made to the 
FITS documents, starting with the original FITS papers?  Judging from 
the length of the 3 existing documents that I mentioned in my previous 
email, I'd estimate that such a list would contain several hundred 
items.  While this long list might be of interest to FITS historians, 
I'm not sure it would be of much practical use to most FITS users or 
software developers.  I think Mark originally had in mind simply 
flagging any previous changes to the FITS syntax that software 
developers should be aware of when write FITS reading software.  This 
would presumably be a very short list.

Rather than trying to hash out all these issues via email with the 
entire 22 member FWG, I think we should  give the committee time to 
consider all issues and the various solutions and come back with their 
recommendations.

All this assumes that a few people are willing to devote some time to 
this project; as yet I don't have any volunteers.

Bill

Arnold Rots wrote:
> I would like to suggest a motion that combines the gist of your two
> motions (since I can't decide which one to amend):
> 
> Motion 3:
> (i)Proceed as soon as possible with the final IAU FWG vote on 
> whether to approve the current 3.0 draft as the new official FITS
> Standard document, with the 4 minor changes noted above and the
> addition of an Appendix titled "Audit Trail" that simply refers to a
> URL at the FITS Support site.
> (ii) Initially, this web page will show "Under Construction", with an
> explanation of its intent and construction schedule.
> (iii) Call for 3-4 volunteers to serve on a committee to a) review 
> the past changes to FITS, and b) make a recommendation back to the IAU 
> FWG on what specific changes (if any) should be documented on the
> audit trail web page. This committee would be asked to report  back
> its findings and a prototype of the Audit Trail web page within some
> reasonable time period, say perhaps 6 months.
> (iv) For future versions the IAU FWG may decide to incorporate the
> Audit Trail appendix into the document itself.
> 
> 
>   - Arnold
> 
> 
> William Pence wrote:
>> Dear IAU FWG members,
>>
>> ...
>> Accordingly, in an effort to move forward, I put the following 2 
>> specific motions up for consideration:
>>
>> Motion 1.  Call for 3-4 volunteers to serve on a committee to a) review 
>> the past changes to FITS, and b) make a recommendation back to the IAU 
>> FWG on what specific changes (if any) should be documented within the 
>> FITS Standard, and how it should be done (e.g., as footnotes, or as an 
>> appendix, or some other means).  This committee would be asked to report 
>> back its findings within some reasonable time period, say perhaps 6 months.
>>
>> Motion 2.  Proceed as soon as possible with the final IAU FWG vote on 
>> whether to approve the current 3.0 draft, (with the 4 minor changes 
>> noted above) as the new official FITS Standard document.
>>
>> Does anyone wish to make any comments on or amendments to either of 
>> these motions?
>>
>> Bill
>> -- 
-- 
____________________________________________________________________
Dr. William Pence                       William.Pence at nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC Code 662       HEASARC        +1-301-286-4599 (voice)
Greenbelt MD 20771                      +1-301-286-1684 (fax)