zip (was: Re: Disk archival techniques)

[Dwight K. Elvey]

>From: "Brian Wheeler" <bdwheele at indiana.edu>
---snip---
>
>Putting it into a currently-standardish format is acceptable for the
>medium term.  There is no format which will withstand eternity, so as
>long as it can be used NOW and for the foreseeable future it can be
>converted later.

Hi Brian
 Even the choice of using ASCII is in question. With more
and more things being used world wide, I expect to see
information stored in a meta translatable language.
This would be something that could be entered in any
language and then print out in any other. It would not
just be a word translator but also include phases
and even slang.
 I see ASCII as having a limited lifetime right now.
 Still, for the archives, one needs to keep things as
simple as one can and still try to include enough
information ( not encrypted ) to recreate the original.
It is a task that Sellam has taken. He has made a great
start on it.
 Personal archives are a different thing. I zip stuff
myself.
Dwight