zip (was: Re: Disk archival techniques)

[Randy McLaughlin]

From: "Jim Leonard" <trixter at oldskool.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 9:40 PM


> 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?
<snip>

It's putting the cart before the horse, once the media is digitized into a 
format that includes the formatting information how it's archived is much 
less important.  It can be in any format that can be unpacked easily.

Lately I've been using self-extracting zip files.  The reason is that just 
by renaming the file from *.exe to *.zip most decompressors handle it just 
fine and for 99% of the people it includes the software to decompress it.

Next year if a better format comes out I can transfer to that method.

No matter what format I've posted on my site I've had lots of complaints 
that it's not the same format or version they are using, usually from people 
running windoze.

By posting exe files I've gotten questions talking about trojan horses, or 
they aren't running windows.  I always say no matter what archive you 
download always have anti-virus software running plus all you have to do is 
rename the file to use it on most decompressors (yes it is also mentioned at 
the bottom of the download pages).


You can not plan on what is the next best archival tool and you can't please 
everyone.  Use what you have and try to make it so most people can handle it 
one way or another.


Randy
www.s100-manuals.com