On Tue, 2010-03-16, Doug Ewell wrote:
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.
I am haunted by the reports I've heard of NASA plaintively requesting
*anybody* to provide them with a 7-track tape machine to allow them to read
old data tapes from the 1960's and 1970's.
Not so much 1000 years as 40 years!
--
Bill McQuillan <McQuilWP(_at_)pobox(_dot_)com>
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