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Assuming that all formats contain the exact same data, i.e. they were generated at the exact same time, which is the (1) most useful for offline viewing (2) most future proof for archival and backup? Is there another, more viable/useful format?


The XML dumps are the most compact and sustainable format in the mid term (let's say decades). https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mirroring_Wikimedia_project_...

ZIM might be able to survive longer (centuries?) as probably the future will still need some HTML parser, while wikitext parsers or PHP might be long dead, who knows.


Thank you for the answer. So especially for personal use I am better off hoarding the ZIM version, especially considering there is the dedicated Kiwix reader, while I am not aware of a similar tool for the XML dumps.




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