We have some concerns about the archival value of this volume. Paper
is a durable medium, in its acid-free state. How durable is software?
These Proceedings are composed of HTML code bound together with CGI
bin scripts connected to current versions of mathematical software
(like Maple or Mathematica), together with a collection of images, data
and text in various formats from GIF to Postscript to ASCII to raw
binary. Where will this volume be in ten years? How about ten
months? The standards are changing very rapidly. Experience to date
tells us that the potential for long-term functionality is quite limited.
Constant improvements cause old versions of any software, whether programming
language or text formatting, to be discarded and forgotten. The storage
medium is also volatile as the supporting hardware technology shifts out
from under it.