Title:                  Proposal for migrating to CFITSIO classes
Person responsible:     Joe McMullin (jmcmulli@nrao.edu)
Originator of proposal: Joe McMullin (jmcmulli@nrao.edu)
Exploders targeted:     aips2-developers
Time table:
        Date of issue:          2004 February 23        Done
        Comments due:           2004 March    1         Done
        Revised proposal:       2004 March    3         Done
        Final comments due:     2004 March    10	Done
        Decision date:          2004 March    17	Done

Statement of goals:

Eliminate the custom FITS classes with the AIPS++ code base and replace them with 
the NASA CFITSIO classes.

Proposed changes:

Use the NASA CFITSIO subroutine library with some wrapper interface to emulate
the existing trial/implement/FITS classes (to facilitate translation between
FITS and AIPS++ data structures).
CFITSIO: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html

Expected Impact:

We will lose the capability to do I/O to tape. This facility is not currently
used and so will have little functional impact to the users.
We will gain the ability to support larger FITS files which are/will be produced
by telescope facilities and we will not need to maintain the low level FITS classes
within the code base. In addition, we will have much better documentation of these
classes which should improve development efforts using this code.

Proposed documentation changes:

Eliminate the FITS classes from the programmer documentation. 
Update information on required cfitsio libraries for using AIPS++ (in 
obtaining/system manuals). 
Documentation on the wrappers to the CFITSIO routines.