VS reporting format

Dear observers,

    I have a proposal of the data format of reports of variable star
observations.  Increasing number of observations and the variety of
expression of variable star names have made it difficult to extract
data automatically from the log file.
    So I would like to suggest that we should adopt some sort of
international reporting format.  The requirement of the format should
be:
    1) Line-oriented, that is, each line should contain necessary
information (object name, time of observation, observation, observer).
This will facillitate extracting data of specific object by a commonly
used tool like 'grep'.
    2) There should be a rule for unique expression of the object name.
    3) Each item should easily be extracted by a commonly used tool
like 'awk' without serious programming.

    As an example, I would like to introduce a variant of VSOLJ machine-
readable reporting format which has been employed for these five years.
An example of the line would be:

LEOR  940516.588  61  Myy.VSOLJ  8B
 (1)      (2)     (3)    (4)     (5)

 Each field must not contain any space characters, and is separated by
necessary number of spaces.

 (1) object name. 
   a) GCVS objects
     The three-letter code (in upper case) of the constellation name
     precedes the variable star name.

     The examples are:

     ANDR
     CETomicron  (usual English expression of Greek letters)
     SERtau4
     HERu        (upper and lower cases should be clarified)
     CYGV360
     CASCEa

     etc.

   b) NSV object
     Necessary zeros should be supplied after the code 'NSV'.

     The examples are:

     NSV00389
     NSV12615

   c) novae
     Same as a), but the name is 'nova'+year.

     The examples are:

     CASnova1993
     SGRnova1994-1

   d) supernovae and other objects
     Usual names, but without space characters.

     The examples are:

     SN1994I
     GD552
     3C273
     OJ287
     PG0943+521

   This rule provides a unique alternative expression of each variable star
name, and the expression can be easily converted to usual variable star name.
(We can provide a small C function for this purpose.)

 (2) time of observation.
    year(-1900), month, date in UT (fraction of a day).

 (3) magnitude
    For visual observations, the decimal points are omitted.
    Modifiers like 'fainter than' (<) or 'less accurate' (:) may be supplied.
    Photoelectric or CCD observations should mention the observed band.

     The examples are:
    61
    123
    <135  (fainter than 13.5)
    135:  (about 13.5)
    130p  (photographic, mag = 13.0)
    12.55V

    etc.

 (4) observer's code
    The code name (and the organization name).  May not be unique.

 (5) remarks
    Free format allowing space characters. instruments, used sequence
   or chart, estimates etc.  May be omitted.

  This format enables us to extract all observations of the specific
object by simply using 'grep'.  To get the data of BC UMa, type
grep UMABC logname.

  We would appreciate your comments on this project.

  We have been preparing preliminary version of comupter programs to help
reporting in this format (one for DOS, with C source code, the other an awk
script) which may be distributed freely.

Regards,
Taichi Kato and VSOLJ data archiving project team