.set date 05,09,1986 .lm 5 .rm 70 .ps 55,65 .flag substitute .ap .sp 1 .spr 0,1,5 .c ;Minutes of the 1st European FITS Committee meeting .c ;February 28, 1986, in ESO, Munich. .c ;(prepared by P.Grosbol, ESO) .s 2 The FITS meeting was arranged as a one hour session of the third Data Analysis Workshop Feb. 27-28, 1986. The agenda of the meeting was: .nf .nj .s1 1) Creation of an European FITS Committee 2) Election of Chairman 3) Proposal for General Extensions of FITS 4) Proposal for Blocking of FITS 5) FITS Cook-Book 6) Needs for other FITS extensions .j .f .s1 .lm +5 .i -5 1)###Creation of the European FITS Committee. .br The participants of the Data Analysis Workshop agreed that it would be useful to create a European FITS Committee which should act as a forum for discussions of FITS matters and as such represent the European FITS community. All major European institutes should be represented in this committee. A European FITS Committee was formed and the following members were elected : .s1 .nj .nf M.Barylak (IUE), W.Lupton (RGO), D.Cesarsky (Paris), P.Kalberla (Bonn), U.Frisk (ESTEC), J.Munoz (IUE), P.Grosbol (ESO), F.Ochsenbein (ESO/CDS), P.Linde (Lund), F.Pasian (ASTRONET), W.Voges (MPI), E.Raimond (NFRA). .s1 .f .j The committee is open to other major institutes which are interested. Normally, one member per institute would be accepted. It was suggested to contact IRAM to check if they were interested. .s1 .i -5 2)###Election of a chairman. .br P. Grosbol was elected as chairman of the European FITS Committee. .s1 .i -5 3)###Discussion of the Proposal for General Extensions of FITS. .br P.Grosbol reported on successful exchange of table and catalogue information between NRAO, ADC/Goddard, and ESO using the proposed extension format for FITS. After a short positive discussion the following motion was adopted : .s1 .c ;FITS Extension Motion .f .j .lm +5 The European FITS Committee endorses the proposal for Generalized FITS Extensions including the extension for Tables as described in the paper R.H.Harten, P.Grosbol, K.P.Tritton, E.W.Greisen, and D.C.Wells : 1985, Mem.S.A.It. Vol. 56, p.437. It is recommended that the F edit descriptor is added to the allowed FORTRAN-77 formats for single precision in the Table Extension and that decoding of table extension data is done as if the OPEN statement specifier BLANK is set to NULL (i.e. blank characters are ignored). This endorsement will first be effective when the North American FITS Group within the AAS WGAS adopts a similar resolution in support of Generalized FITS Extension. .s 1 .lm -5 4)###Proposal for Blocking of FITS. .br In view of the increasing amount of digital data and higher tape densities available now, it was agreed that a possibility for blocking of FITS tapes was highly desirable. It was emphasized that 2880-bytes block FITS tapes still are standard and that major institutes should be prepared to provide unblocked FITS tapes. The following motion was adopted. .s1 .c ;FITS Blocking Motion .lm +5 The European FITS Committee endorses the FITS 'Blocking' Proposal of September 26, 1986, by P.Grosbol with an activation date of January 1, 1987. The FITS Blocking Proposal then reads as follows: .s1 .lm+3 .rm-3 The logical record size of FITS files is 2880 bytes. After 01-Jan-1987, the physical block size used for transport of data files in FITS format on a data carrier is given as a blocking factor times the logical record length (2880 bytes), except for the last block which is truncated. By default, this factor is 1 for all media. An allowed range or set of blocking factors can be specified, by agreement, for a given data carrying medium. Files written with an allowed blocking factor will be regarded as conforming to the FITS standard. A new logical keyword BLOCKED is defined to indicate if a check on the blocking factor used is required. When the keyword BLOCKED is false or not given the file MUST be written with a blocking factor of 1 (i.e. physical blocks of 2880 bytes). The value true (BLOCKED=T) indicates that the file MAY be written with a blocking factor different from 1, but still in the allowed range for the medium used. The BLOCKED keyword MUST be specified within the first logical record of a file. .lm-3 .rm+3 .s1 Further, we endorse the proposal for allowed blocking factors on nine-track magnetic tapes, which reads : .s1 .lm+3 .rm-3 For nine-track magnetic tapes conforming to the ANSI#X3.40-1983 specifications written with 800#bpi (ANSI#X3.22-1973), 1600#bpi (ANSI#X3.39-1973) or 6250#bpi (ANSI#X3.54-1976) the allowed range of blocking factors is integers between 1 and 10 both included (i.e. a maximum physical block size of 28800 bytes). The blocking is done according to ANSI#X3.27-1978 i.e. all blocks in a file have the block size specified except the last which is truncated. .lm-3 .rm+3 .s1 This endorsement will first be effective when the North American FITS group within the AAS WGAS adopts a similar resolution in support of the FITS Blocking Proposal. .s 1 .lm -5 .i -5 5)###FITS Cook-Book. .br It was generally agreed that a comprehensive document describing FITS would be very useful. Such a FITS Cook-Book should not only give the up to date definitions of FITS but also discuss good style FITS and special implementation on major sites. .s1 .i -5 6)###Needs for other FITS extensions ? .br A brief general discussion on other FITS extensions or formats which would be useful in the future to place. Extensions for text and images were mentioned in addition to use of a floating point format and data compression. No specific recommendation was made. European FITS Committee Address list September 10, 1987 Dr. M. Barylak, Tel. : +34-1-401-9661 IUE Observatory, Tex. : ESA-VILSPA, EARN : LX@DDAESA10 P.O. Box 54065, E-28080 Madrid Spain. Dr. M. Currie, Tel. : +44- Starlink, Building R68, Tex. : Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, JANET : CUR@STAR.RL.AC.UK Chilton, DIDCOT, Oxfordshire 0X11 OQX, United Kingdom. Dr. D.A. Cesarsky, Tel. : +33- Institut d'Astrophysique, Tex. : 98 bis, Bd. Arago, SPAN : IAPOBS::DIEGO F-75014 Paris, France. Dr. U. Frisk, Tel. : +31-17198-3612 European Space Agency, ESTEC, Tex. : SSD/A EARN : UFRISK@HNOESA10 Postbus 299 SPAN : ESTCS1::UFRISK NL-2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Dr. O. Gelenkova, Tel. : Special Astrophysical Observatory, Tex. : Nizhnij Arkhyz, E-addr.: Stravropolskij, USSR. Dr. P. Grosbol, Tel. : +49-89-32006-237 European Southern Observatory, Tex. : Karl-Schwarzschild Str. 2, EARN : PREBEN@DGAESO51, D-8046, Garching bei Munchen, SPAN : ESOMC1::PREBEN Fer. Rep. of Gernamy. Dr. P. Linde, Tel. : +46-46-107294 Lund Observatory, Tex. : Box 43, UUCP : PETER%ASTOL.UUCP S-22100 Lund, Sweden. Dr. P. Kalberla, Tel. : +49-228-733657 Radioastronomisches Institut, Tex. : Auf dem Hugel 71, PSI : PSI%45228090071::SYSTEM D-5300 Bonn 1, Fed. Rep. of Germany. Page 2 Mr. J.R. Munoz, Tel. : +34-1-401-9661 IUE Observatory, Tex. : ESA-VILSPA, EARN : LS@DDAESA10 P.O. Box 54065, SPAN : ECD1::323VILSPA E-28080 Madrid Spain. Dr. F. Ochsenbein, Tel. : +49-89-32006-346 European Southern Observatory, Tex. : Karl-Schwarzschild Str. 2, EARN : FRANCIOS@DGAESO51 D-8046, Garching bei Munchen, SPAN : ESOMC1::FRANCOIS Fer. Rep. of Gernamy. Dr. F. Pasian, Tel. : +39-40-763904 Osservatorio Astronomico Tex. : di Trieste, EARN : ADOC@ASTRTS.INFNET Via G.B. Tiepolo 11, PSI : PSI%02222403259::ADOC I-34131 Trieste, Italy. Dr. E. Raimond, Tel. : +31-5-219-7244 Netherlands Foundation Tex. : for Radio Astronomy, PSI : PSI%02041521004::EXR Postbus 2 NL-7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands. Dr. W. Voges, Tel. : Max-Planck-Institut fur Tex. : Extraterrestische Physik, EARN : WHV@DGAIPP1S Karl-Schwarzschild Str. 1, SPAN : MPE::WHV D-8046, Garching bei Munchen, Fer. Rep. of Gernamy.