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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: a common document file format and variable fields
From:       Nicolas Goutte <nicog () snafu ! de>
Date:       2002-07-18 21:47:08
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On Donnerstag, 18. Juli 2002 19:14, Seth Kurtzberg wrote:
> Printing to a file doesn't use paper.  It is just a different file format.

Ah, sorry, I did not understand that you meant "print to file".

> And, the format is not related to the number base used in the machine.  Of
> course the representation of the characters happens to be binary, but that
> reflects the encoding of the file on the media, not the format of the file
> itself.

Then you would also need to define the file format of the "print to file". It 
too must be readable in 60 years.

So I think that it is easier to put the effort in only one format, the one 
that is machine-processable.

>
> Computers using number bases other than 2 have been "coming soon" for well
> over 25 years.  I suppose it is possible that it will happen, but all the
> work, even the esoteric stuff like quantum computing, is implicitly base 2
> technology.

Yes, but we are talking about 60 years.

A little more than 60 years ago intelligent line printers used base 10 to do 
their additions, substractions, multiplications and (for the most powerful 
ones) divisions. Then the computer came with calculations in base 2, which 
slowly has replaced them.

So I would not bet anything on what will be the base used in 60 years.

(I am sorry but I do not know if those machines are really called intelligent 
line printers in English. In German they are called "Tabelliermaschinen".)

And as I have written, it also depends on the floating point format. If you 
will use for example 128 bits to represent it, it will be something else than 
using 80 bits. You will get *other* rounding errors.

Have a nice day/evening/night!

>
> On Thursday 18 July 2002 05:15 am, Nicolas Goutte wrote:
> > How do you get the computed values back in the computer in 60 years?
> > (Whatever a computer might be or look like in 60 years.)
> >
> > Be careful that in 60 years the computers will perhaps not work on base 2
> > anymore and that the floating point specifications will perhaps have
> > changed too. So if you calculate the values back, you will have other
> > rounding errors. I think that this behaviour is not acceptable for at
> > least some kinds of documents.
> >
> > And I suppose that using paper is not acceptable. If the Federal Republic
> > of Germany is pushing forward common document formats, I think that it is
> > also to lessen the use of paper and microfiches for archiving.
> >
> > Have a nice day/evening/night!
> >
> > On Donnerstag, 18. Juli 2002 11:08, Seth Kurtzberg wrote:
> > > Martin,
> > >
> > > Here I think you are proposing too much complexity, when there is a
> > > much simpler solution.  If it is desirable to same the computed data,
> > > print to a file and save the source file and the print file.
> > >
> > > On Wednesday 17 July 2002 05:26 pm, Martin Konold wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > when considering variable date fields or a spread sheet table I am
> > > > wondering if it is a good idea to always not only store the formulas
> > > > but also the visible contents at the time of saving the document.
> > > >
> > > > Such a feature, while increasing the file size can have multiple
> > > > benefits inkl. readability in 60 years without the need to
> > > > reemplement all the functionality of the spreadsheet etc.
> > > >
> > > > Opinions welcome!
> > > >
> > > > Yours,
> > > > --martin
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > koffice-devel mailing list
> > koffice-devel@mail.kde.org
> > http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice-devel

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