zip (was: Re: Disk archival techniques)

[Dwight K. Elvey]

---snip---
>
>However popular a machine is now, there will come a time when there are 
>none still running (and I suspect this will be true of modern PCs long 
>before it's true of things like PDP11s, but I digress). I feel it's very 
>unlikely that our archive of boot disks will survive and no copies of a 
>now-common archive program specification will remain, though.
>
>-tony
>

Hi Tony
 It is more that we can not predict what pieces of the puzzle
will be missing. If I'd have known when I was a kid that Mickey
Mouse watches were going to have value, I'd have bought several.
As you know, from personal correspondence, I'm working on a
machine that wasn't all that uncommon in Europe. Some things
for it just don't seem to exist ( programs and manuals ).
 They were out there but they are gone now. I can't predict
what will be lost and what will survive. I can't predict
why one obscure piece of information continues to be available
despite its limited application while other bits of information
the were more popular are gone.
 The Idea of an archive is to try to minimize the interdependencies.
The archive should include the zip, rar and tar information.
That doesn't mean that the archive should depend on them.
Dwight