MOC load MType

[Mark Taylor]

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/