zip (was: Re: Disk archival techniques)

[Jim Leonard]

Dwight K. Elvey wrote:
>  It seems that may of you are missing the point. The archives
> are intended to be useable in say 500 years ( moved to
> future media ). Any proprietary application like WinRAR
> is useless for this purpose.

I think that *you* are missing the point that *no* archive can last that long 
except maybe paper.  (I say this because the media reader for paper is... all 
humans.  100 years from now I wouldn't expect to be able to read a DVD-ROM, 
for comparison.)  Most digital archivsts agree that the goal is not 100 years, 
but 10-20 so that it can be transferred to the new generation of media every 
so often.

>  I use ZIP files all the time but I would not use any of
> this stuff for the purpose of archiving. I surely wouldn't
> even consider a window application for archiving.

Your viewpoint doesn't make sense to me.  We can still run MS-DOS programs 
from 24 years ago; do you think that 24 years from now we won't be able to run 
windows programs?  It doesn't matter anyway since I use RAR; did you know 
there is a source version of UNRAR that works on everything under the sun?

>  Even things like error correction need to have their
> descriptions in the archive file. Do you expect to package
> a X86 simulator and WinRAR into a HTML like format with
> each of these compressed files? 

Not EACH of them, no.  I may have only been archiving digital media for 20 
years, but everything I have ever laid my hands on is still readable.  I 
transfer it every 5-7 years or so to the newer generation of media, keeping 
one generation backward around just in case.  I also use error-correcting file 
formats and/or make duplicates.  Whenever I store things in .RAR, I always 
include the archival program used to make it.  This takes up 900K of a 4.3G 
DVD-ROM so give me a little credit here.

It is better to archive now than to wait for "the best way" because, due to 
human nature, there is no "best way".  You can always translate data to a new 
format.
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org)
World's largest electronic gaming project:    http://www.MobyGames.com/
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Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings:       http://www.oldskool.org/