(necessary does imply sufficient)

SCOPE: Raw data directly from detectors; processed data, and simulated data. N-dimensional, but N mainly equal to 2.

• INTERNATIONALLY AGREED (CIF O.K.)

• COMMUNITY WIDE: e.g. IUCr approval, or IAU for astronomers (CIF O.K.)

• FLEXIBLE: (CIF O.K.)

• EXTENSIBLE: (CIF O.K.)

• PORTABLE: Easy to port ! (CIF O.K.)

• SIMPLE: Simple jobs need to done simply, whilst the flexibility must be present for the complicated tasks. (CIF O.K.)

• SELF-DESCRIBING: Aim towards self documenting experiments. (CIF O.K.)

• EFFICIENT: (Or at least competitive) (CIF NOT O.K. for large datasets e.g. images; hence CBF)

• FREELY AVAILABLE: (CIF O.K.)

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