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General Requirements

First we list the some general data system requirements. These are probably already included in the infrastructure development for CE data in AIPS++ and required for VLBI.

• the data system file format(s) should be accessible from all supported machines without conversion

• simultaneous sub-netting should be supported

• coordinate handling must be very general and allow different coordinate systems and ephemeris information to be carried along

• support for data with non-regular increments in coordinate axes is required (e.g. non linear velocity axis)

• near field imaging should be supported

• it will be necessary to merge data sets

• support for data errors should be fundamental to the data system, providing a basis for support of data error handling in a variety of applications:
  • easy generation of error models

  • error propagation through a series of tasks

  • error images associated with astronomical images

  • plotting error bars on spectra and profiles

  • automatic warning if contour levels are below noise

  • error-based blanking in display of results

  • properly formatted errors when data are extracted for tabulation

• a processing history should be maintained for each data set that can be reviewed by the astronomer, using an easy to use browser, which allows sorting and editing

• the user should have access to both data values and the ``header'' values that govern the interpretation of the data.