sexagesimal

[Roy Williams]

Alberto Conti wrote:
>
> The adoption of a well known ISO standard or specification seems  
> the most appropriate thing to do, instead of coming up with yet  
> another IVOA recommendation that is just a poor compromise.

Alberto:

(1) I have tried to find existing standards, but ISO seems to have  
nothing. The word "sexagesimal" in Google does not show a recommended  
notation that I could find. Other information is from "people like  
us" (Iraf, Starlink, Vizier, etc) and recommends various output  
formats. In other words, I don't think there is a Sexg standard  
representation.

(2) The IVOA is a standards organization. Our job is to make  
standards. Obviously, our standards should not be poor.

(3) I suggest that many formats be "acceptable" to IVOA applications  
with wide inclusivity. If that effort works, perhaps we can think of  
a tighter format that is "recommended".

(4) Part of the effort here is to allow our customers to put multiple  
things in text boxes. If it parses to 2 floats, we assume long/lat in  
degrees, if it parses to six numbers, it is Sexg, or else perhaps it  
is an object name.


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