MOC load MType

[Mark Taylor]

Hi,

In absence of comments, I have as threatened added this proposed MType,
coverage.load.moc.fits, to the
http://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/SampMTypes wiki page.
That doesn't mean it's too late for further discussion if anybody
has things to say about it.

It would be good if anybody who is currently moving MOCs about via
SAMP could move to using this new MType to do it - as far as I know
the only usages to date are Aladin receiving them and WFAU sending
them from, e.g., http://surveys.roe.ac.uk/wsa/coverage-maps.html,
currently using MType image.load.fits.

I hope in the forseeable future to allow TOPCAT to exchange MOCs
with other SAMP- and MOC-aware tools.

Mark

On Thu, 26 Sep 2013, Mark Taylor wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> following a comment in the MOC Apps session today, I'd like to suggest
> a new MType for the exchange of MOCs.
> 
>    coverage.load.moc.fits:
> 
>       Loads a MOC in FITS format.
> 
>       Arguments:
>          url (string):
>             URL of a FITS file containing the MOC to load
>          coverage-id (string) _optional_:
>             identifier which may be used to refer to the loaded
>             coverage specification in subsequent messages
>          name (string) _optional_:
>             name which may be used to label the loaded coverage
>             specification in the user interface
> 
>       Return values:
>          None.
> 
> Aladin already supports this functionality by co-opting a different
> MType (I think, table.load.fits), but it would be better to have a
> dedicated MType so that it's clear to cooperating clients which ones
> can do something sensible with a MOC.
> 
> The MType name obviously leaves the option open for something like
> coverage.load.stc-s (fine, if somebody wants to implement it),
> or for something like coverage.load.moc.json (which I don't think
> should be encouraged, because FITS should be the standard common
> exchange format).
> 
> Any comments, objections, suggestions etc welcome.
> If nobody comments, I'll add it to the SampMTypes wiki page.
> 
> Mark
> 
> --
> Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
> m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-9288776  http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/
> 

--
Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-9288776  http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/