more on FITS and VO

[Robert Hanisch]

I've been asked to poll the VO community concerning the proposed FITS MIME
type and a restriction that has been suggested:

> Do you, or other members of the VO community, have any objections to this
> change to the FITSMIME proposal?  The effect of this one word change (from
> 'must' to 'should') would be to allow null images (with one or more NAXISn
> keywords = 0) to be given the mime type "image/fits".  Without this change
> in wording this would not be allowed, and such null images would have to
be
> given the mimetype "application/fits".  This appears to be the last
question
> to be resolved before the FITS committees can vote on the proposal (very
> soon I hope).
>
> Bill (Pence)
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: MUST or SHOULD?
> Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:31:53 -0800
> From: Steve Allen <sla at ucolick.org>
> To: William Pence <William.D.Pence at nasa.gov>
> CC: Steve Allen <sla at ucolick.org>, "Wells, Don" <dwells at NRAO.EDU>
> References: <3DF674E3.9FEFF3B8 at nasa.gov>
> <Pine.OSF.4.30.0212111815150.1365-100000 at poseidon.mi.iasf.cnr.it>
> <20021211194531.GA7781 at ucolick.org> <3FC3A87D.4333CA1F at nasa.gov>
>
> On Tue 2003-11-25T14:07:41 -0500, William Pence hath writ:
> > I understood from the FITSBITS discussion in June 2003 that you were
going
> > to modify:
> >
> >     A FITS file described with the media type "image/fits" MUST have a
> >     primary header and data unit (PHDU) which consists of at least one
> >     pixel.
> >
> > so that instead of "MUST" it would read "SHOULD".
> >
> > Your current draft of the proposal at
> > http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/fits/mime/rfcFITS.txt
> > still says "MUST"
> >
> > Is that correct?
>
> I have not changed it pending a clearer view of the situation.
>
> I have asked Bob Hanisch to inquire deep into the VO community in
> hopes of learning whether there seems to be justification for
> zero-pixel instances of image/fits.  I have not been able to elicit a
> definitive confirmation of the need.
>
> The principal objector to SHOULD was Tim Pearson, but Tim seemed
> to think that these MIME types should be more prescriptive than
> I believe is possible given the pre-existing level of anarchy.
>
> --
> Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
> sla at ucolick.org      Voice: +1 831 459 3046
http://www.ucolick.org/~sla
> PGP: 1024/E46978C5   F6 78 D1 10 62 94 8F 2E    49 89 0E FE 26 B4 14 93
>