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Re: Towards consensus on document format

2010-03-16 20:05:47
Phillip Hallam-Baker <hallam at gmail dot com> wrote:

I do not need to have the evidence of 500 years of experience of using HTML to be able to demonstrate that HTML will be readable in 1000 years time. The difficulty of deciphering HTML is remarkably lower than the difficulty of deciphering Linear B (3500 years old), Egyptian hieroglyphs (last used 1600 years ago) or Mayan hieroglyphs (last used 400 years ago).

The other silly aspect of this "will it be readable in 1000 years" argument is the supposition that the documents will sit, forgotten, for 1000 years until some future archaeologist digs them up and wants to decipher them.

Obviously, if a newer and more wonderful format comes along that obsoletes PDF or HTML or whatever, there will surely be a utility (or, more likely, a spate of them) to convert data from the old format to the new format. The RFC series, and zillions of documents more valuable than 80% of the RFC series, will be converted and will exist in both old and new formats LONG before there is any risk of irreversible obsolescence.

--
Doug Ewell  |  Thornton, Colorado, USA  |  http://www.ewellic.org
RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14  |  ietf-languages @ http://is.gd/2kf0s ­

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