Re: The Quest for a Universal Translator for Old, Obsolete Computer Files - Atlas Obscura

Subject: Re: The Quest for a Universal Translator for Old, Obsolete Computer Files - Atlas Obscura
From: "Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2018 11:35:42 -0400

On Tue, 13 Mar 2018 10:50:02 -0400, Caroline Tabach <caroline -dot- tabach -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

I think this is a little bit connected to tech writing, especially for
people around for some time.

On the other hand, are they re-inventing the wheel, maybe there are people on this list who still have SW they are looking for?

As I've related here before I faced that problem 30 years ago when I asked the developer how the users would read the older data tapes in the new software that supported a new format. Reasonable request, or so I thought. He said, "They won't want to read the old format." The company's customers, who had thousands of archival data tapes, rejected the new software.

The article contains this amusing caption:

"To build out emulation environments, the library has been collecting old computers."

It appears beneath a photo of a pile of old CRT monitors. Hey folks, they ain't computers.

When I see a problem like that in a news story I tend to wonder what else is wrong.


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References:
The Quest for a Universal Translator for Old, Obsolete Computer Files - Atlas Obscura: From: Caroline Tabach

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