Why would you need to convert to other formats?
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Well, maybe I wouldnāt, but Iāve seen so-called industry standard formats go the way of the carrier pigeon ā or maybe Betamax is a better analogy. And I still have a ton of data on tape cartridges from around 1998.
The documents remain in their native format, whether imported or indexed, so no conversion is needed unless you have a specific purpose.
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My āDevonthink dataā is in various formats; pdf, jpg, pages, html, numbers, ā¦
What format needs conversion?
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Guys, Iām in over my head here. My real point was only that, if there were something necessary to help DT users preserve their data, some gifted person would rise to the occasion. My thinking was that this would grow out of the user baseās affection for DEVONthink. But obviously I didnāt think through my comment, which I regret. Such is life.
Maybe you meant to say, if the data we saved in DT needs to be converted to some other format. Yes, that does happen. I have old PICT, and other files, that the Mac itself canāt open anymore (oh, a bunch of MSFT, QuarkXpress, and so on.
But of course that has nothing to do with DT itself. So if these files need converting, sure, most - but not all - will be converted by some app written by someone. Like Graphic Converter, etc. But not all. I have a few files that are kaput. I do enjoy looking at their bytes though 
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This is an issue thatās important to me, not just for DEVONthink but for all the applications I rely on. How long will the app continue to be developed? How long will it continue to work?
Others have made great points here about DEVONthinkās reliance on standards to ensure future-proofing.
I think a small company focused on a primary product is a good assurance of long-term viability. A big company can change strategies and drop a product ā Google does this regularly. A single developer can get hit by a bus or change priorities. A small company has the best chance of continuing to do the work for years.
I also put a lot of stock in the Lindy Effect in these matters:
The Lindy effect (also known as Lindyās law[1]) is a theorized phenomenon by which the future life expectancy of some non-perishable thing, like a technology or an idea, is proportional to its current age. Thus, the Lindy effect proposes the longer a period something has survived to exist or be used in the present, the longer its remaining life expectancy.
ā¦
The concept is named after Lindyās delicatessen in New York City, where the concept was informally theorized by comedians: a show running only 2 weeks would be expected to last another 2 weeks, while a show that has lasted 2 years could expect a further 2-year run. The Lindy effect has subsequently been theorized by mathematicians and statisticians.
Software like DEVONthink that has been in development for 17 years stands a good chance of being around for 17 more years.
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Ahmein! 
RE: The Lindy Effect. I wish this were true, but I suspect it doesnāt apply uniformly. A long time ago when I used to play around with Linux, which I think of as a very robust OS universe, I well remember ādeprecationā announcements appearing often in release notes, and sometimes very suddenly. For people running a hands-on distro like Slackware or Gentoo and trying to stay on the bleeding edge, or close to it, it was a bit of a game to stay on top of these things. Often backward compatibility was built in, but not always.
These days, in the Mac universe, I donāt spend nearly as much time under the hood, but instead just take stuff as it comes. I did wait about 12-15 years before investing in DEVONthink, though, and one reason for that was that I wanted to see if it stayed around and continued to be developed. Iām thankful that it has, and it certainly shows every indication that it will outlive me (Iāll turn 70 soon).
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As I mainly come on here to whinge about bugs, I would like to state for the record that I am massively reliant on and deeply appreciative of DT and have no idea what I could possibly replace it with.
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The Lindy Effect is statistically true, but not true in every individual case. A TV show that has been on the air for 10 years will probably be on for many more years ā but it might be canceled tomorrow. Long-running shows are often canceled.
I am not hugely familiar with the specifics of Linux, but I will guess that these suddenly deprecated packages had only been developed for 3-5 years or less, so their cancellation does not negate the Lindy Effect.
The Lindy effect is an argument against being on the bleeding edge. Or, more precisely, itās an argument for being aware when youāre on the bleeding edge, and not relying on bleeding-edge technology for mission-critical applications.
Iād like to believe that, but thereās a secret sauce and a philosophical approach to DEVONthink that has not been grasped by other developersā¦ theyāve had decades to try. no one has done it. no one has tried to surpass it. Iāve seen this beforeā¦
I still mourn the loss of hypercard ā¦ I havenāt rewritten it myself, and I havenāt really seen it replicated but I still see others talk about its impactfulness as well.
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Maybe LiveCode could be some sort of modern incarnation of the HyperCard idea.
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LiveCode is HyperCard ā or rather SuperCard, whose HyperCard-based IP they bought up and built their (excellent, if no longer affordable) product around.
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Since DEVONthink did not attend the SummerFest 2025, what are their plans for 2026? Thank you
SuperCard was pretty good. Alas, went the way of the Dodo as well.
ha! Good to know - erm, canāt accessā¦ and seems like theyāve discontinued Open Source support for something called LiveCode 10 - but canāt connect.
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Until the pandemic they had a fantastic free ācommunity editionā where you only paid if you wanted to deploy your app commercially. But it became unsustainable and they had to move to an enterprise pricing model for everyone, since when I havenāt kept up with development. I see theyāre now promoting a no-code version called LiveCode Create, with the HyperTalk-based version rebranded as LiveCode Classic.
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We donāt publish information on sales and promotions until the appropriate time.
HyperCard stacks are still being released on (and for) #GlobalTalk 
In March there was a HyperCard-based treasure hunt, even! (I came a [very] close second in that!)
Sean
PS Sorry to keep hijacking this thread to talk about #GlobalTalk, but man, is it the retro Mac network for the modern age