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There is a related link on Cafe con Leche (thanks Elliote) :
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_534847.html?menu=news.latestheadlines
Laser discs wrote 15 years ago can't be read... What about the Web ? We
still can browse a part of the web's past thanks to the Internet Archive
(http://www.archive.org/), but how will we do this in 5 or 10 years, when
common browsers will support different standards ?
Building a technology should always be done as if it would eventually become
legacy technology. But how to do that ?
The problem is not only related to computers and the Web. Have a look at The
Long Now foundation, which has one objective of building a clock that can
run 10.000 year :
http://www.longnow.org/10kclock/clock.htm
I think the principles can have positive echoes in the XML community :
http://www.longnow.org/10kclock/clock.htm
* Longevity
With occasional maintenance, the clock should reasonably be expected to
display the correct time for the next 10,000 years.
* Maintainability
The clock should be maintainable with bronze-age technology.
* Transparency
It should be possible to determine operational principles of the clock by
close inspection.
* Evolvability
It should be possible to improve the clock with time.
* Scalability
It should be possible to build working models of the clock from table-top to
monumental size using the same design.
Some rules that follow from the design principles:
Longevity:
Go slow
Avoid sliding friction (gears)
Avoid ticking
Stay clean
Stay dry
Expect bad weather
Expect earthquakes
Expect non-malicious human interaction
Dont tempt thieves
Maintainability and transparency:
Use familiar materials
Allow inspection
Reherse motions
Make it easy to build spare parts
Expect restarts
Include the manual
Scalability and Evolvabilty:
Make all parts similar size
Separate functions
Provide simple interfaces
Regards,
Nicolas
>-----Message d'origine-----
>De : Bullard, Claude L (Len) [mailto:clbullar@ingr.com]
>Envoyé : mardi 5 mars 2002 15:40
>À : 'Mike Champion'; xml-dev@lists.xml.org
>Objet : RE: [xml-dev] XML doesn't deserve its "X".
>
>
>How about this: it is time for the innovation
>in computers in general and the web in particular
>to stop. It is time for a regulated standard to
>be created and enforced by statute such that if
>one buys a computer and a program to run on it
>today, it will run on a computer that you buy
>50 years from now, and that the computer you
>buy today will run any program written 50
>years from now.
>
>It works for TV and automobiles. Why not computers?
>We must get out of the experimenter/hobbyist
>phase and enable people to get the most out
>of their investment. The situation today
>is ALL Bill Gates' fault, of course.
>
>;-)
>
>That's not an original thought or even a troll.
>It was proposed in an article this past weekend
>and comes from a journalist think tank type.
>
>The next new thing will be an old thing
>that had a short burst of notoriety, was
>dissed, and will be renamed and dressed,
>and attributed to a 15 year old genius
>(his mother swears he is) in Nebraska.
>The money on the Next New Thing will of
>course be mostly made by the really old
>guys (45+ at least) who pay for the
>prominent position on Google, in trades,
>and on NPR. C looks awfully warm and fuzzy.
>
>len
>
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