Re: ImageJ development involvement/contributions

Posted by David Webster on Dec 14, 2009; 7:41pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/ImageJ-development-involvement-contributions-tp3690030p3690037.html

All,

So, why can't we have 100% backward compatibility?

Are changes that would preclude this really all that necessary?

David Webster

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 10:15 AM, Frederic V. Hessman <
[hidden email]> wrote:

> (my reply didn't make it to the list the first time)
>
>   I'm not complaining, just thinking about what would be possible if
>>>> ImageJ
>>>> supported all the data models and world coordinate systems of just the
>>>> FITS standard (generalized hyperstacks, highly non-linear coordinates,
>>>> all known map-projections).
>>>>
>>>
>>> ... IMHO you should not
>>>
>>> say that a certain model is very primitive unless you have come up with a
>>> superior model...
>>>
>>
> I'd be happy to ablidge.   These things were taken care of (literally) ages
> ago in astronomy - being a small, global community, we needed good standards
> early on:
>
> - generalized hyperstacks (1981)
>
> http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1981A%26AS...44..371G&db_key=AST&high=3db47576cf05893
>
> - generalized tables (1995)
>
> http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1995A%26AS..113..159C&db_key=AST&high=3db47576cf06210
>
> - generalized coordinates (2002)
>
> http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2002A%26A...395.1061G&db_key=AST&high=3db47576cf06933
>
> - every known map-projection (2002)
>
> http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2002A%26A...395.1077C&db_key=AST&high=3db47576cf06933
>
> Of course, this is just a data-representation made for storage (that's what
> the FITS standard is all about), but the appropriate properties of a
> generalized data model are well illustrated by the constraints  placed on
> being able to store such data.  The FITS header mechanism is primitive but
> easy to use and makes the bookkeeping associated with generalized
> hyperstacks/tables/coordinates/world-coordinate-systems fairly manageable
> (and is much more powerful than that used in TIFF or JPEG).
>
> Since most of you are interested in plain imaging (even if it is
> n-dimensional), it was natural that ImageJ only supported the simplest data
> forms, but once you get to know and love (!) ImageJ, you want to be able to
> do other things as well.
>
> Rick
>