FITS MIME is RFC 4047
The IESG has informed the
authors that the FITS MIME Internet Draft has become RFC 4047.
The IANA registry of
MIME Media Types confirms the existence of
image/fits
and
application/fits.
The RFC Editor provides access to RFC 4047
here (http), and
here (ftp), and
here (index, latest first).
Incunabula
The notion of MIME media types for FITS was first raised by Don Wells
in his
inaugural presentation as chairman of the IAU FITS Working Group
at the General Assembly in Den Haag in 1994
The notion was raised again by
Don Wells at ADASS
as seen in the agenda
of the 1996 FITS BoF.
The notion was raised again by Don Wells at
ADASS
as seen in the agenda
of the 2001 FITS BoF.
Proposal to register MIME media types for FITS
The various Virtual Observatory
initiatives (
NVO,
AstroGrid,
AVO)
expect to produce standards for data and interfaces which will evolve
into web services for astronomical data. Much of the astronomical
data exist in FITS files. There is currently no standard means for a
web server to inform a web client that it is supplying a FITS file.
This proposal seeks to remedy that lack.
The FITS MIME Internet-Draft is Published as RFC 4047
The IETF provides a
Draft Tracker which shows
the current state of the FITS MIME Internet-Draft, and also a
detail page which shows
the history of the FITS MIME Internet-Draft.
The IETF has web pages with the
state transition diagram and an
explanation of states for Internet-Drafts.
The
RFC-Editor
Process is described by its own complex
state transition diagram.
-
2005-09-09
-
The IANA webmaster updated the web pages of registered media types for
image/fits
and for
application/fits.
-
2005-07-29
-
The IANA webmaster updated the web page of registered media types for
image/fits
but not yet for
application/fits.
-
2005-04-26
-
The IESG informed Steve Allen and Don Wells that RFC 4047 is published.
The IANA had not yet modified the web pages for media types
application
or
image.
-
2005-04-21
-
The Internet Draft has vanished from the
queue of the RFC Editor
but it still appears in the
IETF history of Internet Drafts with state RFC Ed Queue.
-
2005-04-20
-
The ietf-announce mail list
indicated that RFC 4047 is available in the online RFC libraries.
-
2005-04-18/19
-
There was no announcement, but
RFC 4047 became visible in the central repositories controlled
by the RFC Editor.
It is available
via HTTP, and
via FTP.
It also appears
in the indicies (e.g.,
latest first)
and it can be retrieved from the
search page.
-
2005-04-14
-
After reviewing the text
Steve Allen and Don Wells informed the RFC Editor that the
document which will become RFC 4047 is ready to publish.
-
2005-04-13
-
The RFC Editor informed Steve Allen and Don Wells that the revised
draft was available for a 48-hour inspection period.
-
2005-04-06
-
After consulting with the
IAUFWG Steve Allen and
Don Wells returned a list of minor edits for technical content and
grammar to the RFC Editor.
-
2005-04-04
-
Steve Allen and Don Wells were informed by the RFC Editor that the
edited version of the Internet Draft is now available for its 48-hour
review period.
In the
queue of the RFC-Editor
the document changed to the single state named ``AUTH48''.
The text indicates that after it is published the Internet Draft will
become RFC 4047.
-
2005-03-21
-
In the
queue of the RFC-Editor
the document changed to the single state named ``RFC-EDITOR''. This
should mean that the editorial staff are now actually reviewing the
text of the Internet Draft for any deficiencies.
-
2004-11-23
-
In the
queue of the RFC-Editor
the document changed to the single state named ``EDIT''. Presumably
this means that
the RFC Editor
received word from the IANA that
the provisional MIME media types had been assigned.
-
2004-11-22
-
The IANA has assigned provisional
MIME media types for
image/fits and
application/fits.
These are now visible on the IANA web pages for the media types
image
and
application.
The IANA asked the authors to verify the correctness of those pages,
we concurred with their content, and we replied to the IANA.
This leaves the remaining action between the
RFC Editor and the authors,
after which the IANA should change
the above entries to indicate the actual RFC number.
The document remained visible in the
queue of the RFC-Editor
with the states named ``EDIT'' and ``IANA''.
-
2004-11-07/12
-
The
IETF meeting was held in Washington DC.
-
2004-11-02
-
The IETF acknowledged that the FITS MIME draft has been moved to
state
RFC Ed Queue.
The document remained visible in the
queue of the RFC-Editor
with the states named ``EDIT'' and ``IANA''.
-
2004-11-01
-
As seen in
section 2 of the IESG announcement web page
the IESG has
announced the approval of the FITS MIME Internet-draft.
The FITS MIME draft was moved to
state
Approved-announcement sent.
The IETF-Announce mailing list also contains the
announcement of the approval
.
The document became visible in the
queue of the RFC-Editor
with the states named ``EDIT'' and ``IANA''.
-
2004-10-29
-
The IESG has approved the FITS MIME draft.
It has been moved to
state
Approved-announcement to be sent
-
2004-10-28
-
This was the date of the IESG telechat.
The FITS MIME draft has the requisite
9 votes to move it forward from the IESG.
The results of the review should appear on the
web page of the IESG.
-
2004-10-22
-
The FITS MIME draft was moved to
state
IESG Evaluation
There is an openly visible
IESG Ballot
which shows the status of the voting.
The Agenda for the
IESG telechat for 2004-10-28 included
the FITS MIME draft under section 3.2.1.
-
2004-10-04
-
The IANA replied to the Last Call
for the FITS MIME Internet-Draft informing the
IESG that
Upon approval of this document the IANA will register the
MIME Media types:
application/fits
image/fits
-
2004-09-27
-
The shepherding AD evaluated the draft and
requested the 4 week period of Last Call review by
the IESG.
The
IETF Announce mail archive contains the
Last Call announcement for the FITS MIME Internet-Draft which
started a 4 week review by the IESG
that ended 2004-10-25.
There were no comments on the Last Call in the
IETF Discussion mail archive.
-
2004-09-10
-
Scott Hollenbeck became shepherding AD for the draft.
He issued the
Formal request
for
IETF-Types to review top-level MIME media types.
See the
IETF-Types Archives which contain only
one comment (favorable) during the two week review period.
-
2004-09-09
-
Formal request to RFC Editor
to consider for publication
-
2004-09-02
-
Internet-Draft was posted.
The circumstances of the posting are visible in the
I-D mailing list archive which gives
the URL for the text of the Internet-Draft.
-
2004-08-26
-
Internet-Draft was submitted to internet-drafts@ietf.org
Victory Photo
By coincidence, Don Wells stopped by Lick on the day the Internet-Draft
was posted.
Here is the victory photo.
IAU FITS Working Group Proceedings
After the regional FITS committees approved the FITS MIME
document the
IAU FITS Working Group (IAUFWG) proceeded to vote.
The archives
of the IAU FITS Working Group are publicly available.
-
IAUFWG Call for Votes on 2004-07-22
-
The text of the charter for submitting the FITS MIME
document is visible in this message.
-
IAUFWG Approval on 2004-08-09
-
The results of the vote on the FITS MIME Internet-Draft
were unanimously in favor of submission to the IETF.
The text of the Internet Draft in the link above conforms to the
format needed for submission to the RFC Editor.
For ease of viewing, Don Wells has also made it available as
application/pdf.
For ease of reviewing there are also diffs which show the changes made
since various announcement dates
The Internet rules assert that the text of an RFC may not be modified
after it is published. However, the rules for MIME media types in RFC 2048 admit that the
text of a media type registration may be modified after it is
published. Therefore it is possible in the future, e.g., that
``Optional parameters'' might be added to the MIME media types if the FITS
community were to decide that they are desirable.
The original draft of the RFC contained much bracketed material on
aspects which were uncertain. Many of the uncertainties have been
removed during discussions of the fitsmime mailing list (see below).
The commentary covers the reasoning behind the current form of the
draft. It also mentions some items not within the scope of the RFC
which deserve separate attention from the FITS community.
E-mail discussion of the draft text
An electronic mail list for discussing MIME media types for FITS has been
setup at NRAO. The
content of this
list is publicly available.
Steve Allen <sla@ucolick.org>
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