Hi Harry,
First of all, if you keep a copy of flac 1.1.4 then you will always
be able to decode the files. Why not make a backup of flac 1.1.4?
Second of all, flac is open-source, so somebody will always be able
to compile flac 1.1.4 for any new platform.
There are never any guarantees about the future. Some day, MP3 won't
decode on a new computer, AIFF and WAV might be unheard of. What
makes you think that WAV will outlast FLAC? Some day, there won't be
a single CD Player still working. Your best bet is to use open-
source software and keep backups. Hopefully, the C programming
language won't disappear from the face of computing.
Brian Willoughby
Sound Consulting
On Apr 1, 2007, at 07:18, Harry Sack wrote:
Hi,
I'm a FLAC beginner and I had a question. Suppose I encode my whole
CD collection now in the FLAC format, using the FLAC encoder version
1.1.4 (the most recent one at this time).
Will I still be able to decode all FLAC files to WAV files in the
future using the latest FLAC decoder, when for example version 2.0 of
FLAC (or a later version) is released or is it possible that at some
point in the future you can't decode older FLAC files anymore with
the latest FLAC decoder?
So basically my question is: can you always decode ANY FLAC file, no
mather what FLAC encoder version you have used to encode it, by using
ANY other newer FLAC decoder that still has to be released in the
future?
I was hoping the main developer Josh Coalson could confirm this,
because it's an important point for people who like to store their CD
collection in the FLAC format!
thanks in advance!
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