At 11:24 AM -0500 9/4/97, Jaron Lanier wrote:
>So the thought is to have constant automated exercise of the global archive
>of interactive works.
I like the paradox of continually evolving backward-compatible emulation
systems. It suggests that some "best practices" might emerge for helping
such retro emulation in the original software and hardware design.
>Another approach is to archive the interactive hardware/software
>environments. It's easy to underestimate the difficulty of doing this.
>It's expensive- you have to buy the machines at their peak value and devote
>floor space to them. Even worse, you'd have to keep copies of every
>hardware/software COMBINATION in working order but without changing a
>single detail.
Someone in Sausalito with specific and ongoing experience with this is good
old Bill English, long of Xerox PARC (and earlier at Doug Engelbart's SRI).
He maintains an operating Alto from PARC, circa 1973. Xerox uses it and
him to protect patents for things like windows, icons, popup menus, etc.
etc.