--On Friday, 06 October, 2006 14:26 -0400 "Gray, Eric"
<Eric(_dot_)Gray(_at_)marconi(_dot_)com> wrote:
It makes sense now, but will it make sense in 10 years?
With today's DVD technology, is it completely unlikely
that ISO CD formats may not be supported by then? Is it
not possible that CDs will go the way of 8-track tapes,
beta-max, and 3.25 " floppy and 100 Mega-byte Zip drives?
I can store more data on a memory stick than I can on a
CD. In 10 years, I expect I'll be able to store as much
as 20 times the data of a CD on a stick - and I don't
think the stick uses the ISO format.
It would be a shame to have to support an "ISO format
converter" in 10 years so that people could access the
older IETF documents and proceedings...
Eric,
I made a suggestion similar to Andy's and Mike's in a offlist
note to Ray. I also suggested doing it as well as the ZIP file,
not instead of it -- the marginal costs in terms of storage or
production would not be large and it seems to me that they meet
the needs of different audiences. Ultimately, an ISO CD image
is good for only one thing, which is producing CDs, and a
compact format where individual files are more accessible is
clearly a good idea. To my knowledge, no one has suggested
discontinuing the current online HTML accessibility either.
Beyond that, while I understand the concerns you list, one could
make the same observations about HTML (and make the same "size
of installed base" argument for CDs that most of us would make
about HTML). One needs to be conservative, but not to get
ridiculous. Remember that there was no particular reason to
assume that zip-format files would last when they were first
introduced, or that the format would survive its author (several
other archive formats of the time basically didn't).
Speaking as someone who can still read and write 9-track tapes
(but not 8 track), 100 Mb ZIP disks, and 3 1/2 (and 5 1/4) inch
diskettes. :-) ...
john
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