Astropy Proposal for Enhancement 13: Vision for Astropy Spectroscopic Tools (APE 13)

The goal of this APE is to coordinate and plan the development of spectroscopic software within the astropy project. The requirements for spectroscopic tools include handling and reducing observations, different types of analysis, and visualization of spectra. The goal of this APE is to provide a framework that different astronomy packages can use to coordinate the development of spectroscopic tools. The idea is a set of foundational packages that can then be extended to build other tools. As part of this coordination effort, this APE provides specifications for a Spectrum1D class. Note that "1D" is not mean to indicate a single spectrum - the object can also be a collection of spectra. This class will then provide a standard interface for 1D spectra that will be the basis for interoperability.