[iaufwg] IAUFWG review of the new draft FITS Standard

[Mark Calabretta]

On Tue 2008/03/18 10:12:38 +1100, Ray.Norris at csiro.au wrote
in a message to: <sla at ucolick.org>, <iaufwg at nrao.edu>

Dear Ray,

>Presumably Mark already has a list of such inconsistencies which would
>form the basis for such an Appendix, which will no doubt continue to be
>developed in subsequent versions of the standard.

Unfortunately I do not.  I don't think anyone has.  I suspect the list
is probably quite short but noone seems to know.

So, if you want to write an interpreter that can handle old FITS files,
e.g. on that dusty tape or still being written by some ancient software,
then you must peruse all previous revisions of the FITS spec looking for
such traps.  And then the next person can do the same again.

But if the review committee doesn't think it's worth the effort then who
could blame you for agreeing?  On the bright side, "Once FITS always
FITS" would be even pithier as just "Once FITS"!

Regards, Mark