> I’ve brought my text files with me since 1990, from Mac to Windows to Linux to BSD
> But plain text? Always. Everywhere.
Quite obviously you have your files in ASCII. Anyone who needs more than 26 letters (or god forbid non-latin ones) are fucked. Sometimes quite literally.
> Your writing should outlive you. Depending on companies is not an option.
ASCII? Sure. EBCDIC? Ughh. UTF... 8? 16? 32?
> If you rely on Word, Evernote or Notion, for example, then you can’t work unless you have Word, Evernote, or Notion. You are helpless without them
And you are absolutely helpless if you can't access your ASCII/EBCDIC/UTF8whatever plain-text files.
> Plain text can be converted into anything else.
Date: 2022.02.03
Is this March 3rd or February 3rd?
> NEED HIERARCHY
Sure. But in the year 2022 I want not only a hierarchy but crosslinks too.
> CONCLUSION
> Reliable
If you know the encoding. IF.
> flexible
See #date
> portable
See #date
> independent
Sure, but what about dates and encoding?
> and long-lasting
If on the suitable media. Good luck accessing your precious files on Google Drive when the mighty AI decided you aren't worthy to access them. Or your CD-ROM isn't readable because the last machine with working [0] CD-ROM compatible drive were thrown out 5 years ago because it can't run any modern OS[1]
> Plain text files will be readable by future generations, hundreds of years from now.
[x] Doubt
Real conclusion:
Sure, plain-text files are way better than binary blobs with unknown structure, but they are not a silver bullet. You still need to think about how, where and in what format to store them.
5/10, would not recommend.
[0] The last machine in my house with CD-ROM drive is X301 which is .. somewhere. My desktop's NEC-45xx was dead last time (6 years ago) I tried.
[1] CentOS8 performance with Gnome on ThinkPad X301 is abysmal to say the least. Even Windows 10 (!) runs better on it.
PS: to the kind person who bothered to downvote this comment: do you prefer your UTF encoded files with BOM or not? And your preferred editing software?
> But plain text? Always. Everywhere.
Quite obviously you have your files in ASCII. Anyone who needs more than 26 letters (or god forbid non-latin ones) are fucked. Sometimes quite literally.
> Your writing should outlive you. Depending on companies is not an option.
ASCII? Sure. EBCDIC? Ughh. UTF... 8? 16? 32?
> If you rely on Word, Evernote or Notion, for example, then you can’t work unless you have Word, Evernote, or Notion. You are helpless without them
And you are absolutely helpless if you can't access your ASCII/EBCDIC/UTF8whatever plain-text files.
> Plain text can be converted into anything else.
Date: 2022.02.03
Is this March 3rd or February 3rd?
> NEED HIERARCHY
Sure. But in the year 2022 I want not only a hierarchy but crosslinks too.
> CONCLUSION
> Reliable
If you know the encoding. IF.
> flexible
See #date
> portable
See #date
> independent
Sure, but what about dates and encoding?
> and long-lasting
If on the suitable media. Good luck accessing your precious files on Google Drive when the mighty AI decided you aren't worthy to access them. Or your CD-ROM isn't readable because the last machine with working [0] CD-ROM compatible drive were thrown out 5 years ago because it can't run any modern OS[1]
> Plain text files will be readable by future generations, hundreds of years from now.
[x] Doubt
Real conclusion:
Sure, plain-text files are way better than binary blobs with unknown structure, but they are not a silver bullet. You still need to think about how, where and in what format to store them.
5/10, would not recommend.
[0] The last machine in my house with CD-ROM drive is X301 which is .. somewhere. My desktop's NEC-45xx was dead last time (6 years ago) I tried.
[1] CentOS8 performance with Gnome on ThinkPad X301 is abysmal to say the least. Even Windows 10 (!) runs better on it.
PS: to the kind person who bothered to downvote this comment: do you prefer your UTF encoded files with BOM or not? And your preferred editing software?