astropy / astropy/specutils

Inconsistant expectation for location of header data (vs. other metadata)

Open
#1,102 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
Python
Stars
204
Forks
134
Avg merge
12h 55m
Merged PRs (30d)
1

Description

The location of header keywords is inconsistent - wcs1d_fits writer will update the output header with anything in the spectrum.meta dictionary. Tabular fits expects header-specific keys to be in meta.header, as a fits.Header object (and will ignore it if its a dictionary). I'm not sure what the other readers/writers do, but it is inconsistent at least in these. Because there can be other information in `meta` that might not belong in the fits file header, meta.header is preferable (either as dict or `Header`?)

(Issue made after discussion with @kelle @havok2063, @tepickering)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by comparing the wcs1d_fits writer with Tabular fits handling of spectrum.meta and meta.header, then inspect what the other readers and writers do. Resolve whether header metadata should consistently use meta.header as a dict or fits.Header, and define completion as consistent behavior across the affected readers and writers.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.