2006.04.19 23:05 "Re: [Tiff] PDF/A vs. TIFF", by Bob Friesenhahn

100 years from now someone comes across a storage device containing two documents - one in PDF/A and one in TIFF. There are no current "software" products that can read either format, and so one must be written from specification. ASSUMING that the specifications/standard documents are available - which would be easier to implement from scratch WITH NO REFERENCE IMPLEMENTATION.

I happen to believe that the TIFF specification is one of the best quality file format specifications available. I have seen few that are better.

100 years sounds impressive, but the USA is just a bit over 200 years old, the automobile has been around for about 100 years, refrigerators have been in common use for 50 years, and "modern" computing did not even start until around 1978 or so. It is rather difficult to know what the world of computing will be like 100 years from now. The mention of 100 years as some sort of "fact" sounds like a bunch of hot air to me. :-)

Based on rapid advances in recent history, in 100 years a "computer" might be an organic mass more like a human brain, it may be completely optical, or based on something we are not even aware of yet.

Bob
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Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer, http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/