[AstroPy] Enhanced Character Separated Values table format for discussion

[Aldcroft, Thomas]

There is an Astropy Proposed Enhancement that could benefit from discussion
with an audience outside the usual astropy-dev crowd.  Please see the pull
request link and abstract below.

To avoid confusion, *please* comment on the github PR page if possible, not
on this mailing list.

Cheers,
Tom

APE-6 : https://github.com/astropy/astropy-APEs/pull/7

Abstract
--------

Data tables in astronomical analysis frequently contain additional metadata
beyond just the column names and data values.  Common attributes include
the numerical data type, the physical unit, and a longer textual
description of the column content.  These attributes can be represented in
binary formats such as FITS, but the available options for a text-only
format are inadequate.

APE6 proposes to fill this void by specification of a standard for the
interchange of tabular data in a text-only format.  The format handles the
key issue of serializing column specifications and table metadata by using
a YAML-encoded data structure.  The actual tabular data are stored in a
standard character separated values (CSV) format, giving compatibility with
a wide variety of non-specialized CSV table readers.

Using YAML makes it extremely easy for applications *and humans* to read
both the standardized data format elements (e.g. column name, type,
description) as well as complex metadata structures.  YAML also lends
itself to simple table modifications by humans in a plain text editor.

The reference Python implementation in ``astropy.io.ascii`` is relatively
straightforward and will provide a significant benefit of allowing text
serialization of most astropy Table objects, persistent storage, and
subsequent interchange with other users.

Although developed in the context of Astropy, there is nothing
astronomy-specific in this format and it could be useful for other domains
or languages.  However, promoting that is beyond the scope of this APE.
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