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Re: CIF 2.0 syntax proposal for retaining backwards CIF 1.xcompatibility. .

I have not been on COMCIFS for many years, but as long as I get the e-mails, I am not going to withhold my 2¢ ($0.02 without unicode). 

Managing a database or codebase is a tough enough task without the problems of people creating new new incompatible formats. If it is really going to make CIF2 better to break the old format, then I reluctantly will ceed to that, but the idea of of creating a bridging format (CIF1.2) that permits simple interconversion with CIF2 is going to save a lot of problems and may even encourage the eventual adoption of CIF2. I strongly encourage that. 

Brian


On Sep 17, 2013, at 12:21 PM, Bollinger, John C wrote:

The fundamental question Saulius raises is whether a new, backwards-incompatible version of CIF is relevant or desirable.  Are the costs of dropping backwards compatibility too high for the benefits we hope to gain?  From a higher perspective, those costs may include some or all of the following:

- Loss of developer good will
- Lack of community acceptance
- Technical issues at various levels arising from confusing one format with the other
- User confusion

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