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XML for Ancients
Andrew writes: "More than 5,000 years ago, the very first information revolution occurred when some unknown research team in Mesopotamia found a way to download and store language through a killer application called "writing.". The cuneiform digital library will have 60,000 texts ready in a couple of years. Using SVG and XML to represent their documents. Similar efforts are underway for hieroglyphics."
they are also writing their tcp packets on clay tablets, and attempting to send them down the wire. That was the quickest /.'ing I've *ever* seen.
[smile]
Scientific American has this article on Information Technology, 2500 B.C. on what life was like for the information worker of that day.
As many as half a million cuneiform tablets, hand size up to book-page size, are now available around the world. Surely many more are waiting to be found. Those samples are of every quality: once prized accounts and receipts, schoolboys' lessons, litigation profound or droll, literary essays, erotica, mathematics--and entire ancient epics, centuries older than Father Abraham's. A mostly unread treasury, comprising the equivalent of tens of thousands of large printed volumes.
Looks like there could be a lot of fun and good stuff there.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
-- William "Scorpion King" Gates
"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
IIRC, cuneiform writing is composed entirely of angle brackets. To write this in XML, every character is going to have to be escaped!
All I can think of now is the new book series:
"XML for Mummies"
At least in this case when you see the reviews "this book will put you to sleep" it really doesn't matter.
-Brad