Dear all,
As a novice to mail groups and FORTRAN in general, I am in exalted company!!
I couldn't help noticing the benefits of modern technology coming in to play
in this very discussion.
In the space of 24 hours or so, we have had several important points raised,
and discussed intelligently, by well informed people. As if that wasn't
enough, it is all delivered straight to our desktops!!
This type of discussion can only be dreamt about by the traditional
paper/journal mediums.
However, modern technology has it's drawbacks, the long term storage
question is one of them. Also, disseminating information via the electronic
medium does tend to produce instantaneous, but small doses of information. A
journal, on the other hand, scores on it's longevity (in terms of storage)
and from the fact that a journal report will (probably?) go into greater
detail.
I hope you don't mind me airing my views on the subject, and I would welcome
any feedback.
Jeremy Cook
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Metcalf [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 05 May 2000 12:47
> To: Ian Chivers
> Cc: Clive Page; comp-fortran-90
> Subject: Re: Stong opinions
>
> Message text written by Ian Chivers
> >>
> > A journal which doesn't have many subscribers, and isn't available in
> many
> > libraries isn't much more accessible; at least many of the better
> > postings to this list and to Usenet get grabbed and incorporated in a
> > number of web-sites. They may last as long as Fortran does.
>
> posting to comp-fortran-90 are archived indefinitely.
> I made a case to mailbase some time ago and they accepted
> the points and agreed to do this.
> <
>
> Excellent. However, you might be interested to know that doubts about the
> very long-term stability of data media and of accessibility to means to
> read them recently caused the UK parliament to reaffirm its practice of
> printing a copy of all its statutes on vellum! Imagine the Doomsday Book
> had been written only on 1/2 " tape!
>
> Mike
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