Tape dumping programs for Unix/Linux...

From: Douglas H. Quebbeman <dquebbeman_at_acm.org>
Date: Thu May 2 17:16:41 2002

> > > - ability to flag if an End-of-tape marker/indicator was seen
> > > while reading the the current record (again, not all
> > > hardware/OS's support getting that information)
> >
> > No, and again, I can't see how this data would be used to recreate
> > the tape or would be needed by an emulator. It's kind of like asking
> > if a particular hardware emulator also emulates memory parity errors
> > so that you can see memory parity errors in the logs. Why??
>
> I can see some use for this if you want to use the recovered
> image file with an emulator -- you can provide the physical-EOT
> indication to the emulator. What's it good for? I don't know, but
> I wouldn't be surprised if there is some software that relies on
> seeing the physical-EOT mark while reading.

In my emulator, when I reach the end-of-file on the tape image
file while reading it, the tape drive emulation returns the
status code for physical EOT.

> > Anyway, I encode that kins of descriptive information (what kind
> > of computer, encoding, #tracks, etc) in the filename, or in the
> > name of the directory containing the file, or in a README.
>
> There is something to be said for keeping all the related bits
> together in a single container, it keeps them from getting separated.

Absolutely- that's why I ZIP or TAR and GZIP the directory
containing the image file(s) and a README.

> > However, I'm not King of this Kingdom, we're a collective
> > (right out of Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail).
> > You might try hooking up with the emulator community and
> > ask your questions there.
>
> Where does one go to find "the emulator community"?

Well, each emulator has its own community, but many of the
players live in more than one, so that makes it more of a
"meta-community".

There is a mailing list for the SIMH people.

I run a mailing list for the Cyber Reimplementor's Guild.

I believe there is one for the Hercules crowd.

It would be nice if comp.sys.emulators could provide the
synergy to bring us all together. But it's saturated with
game system emulator talk, which draws too much attention
from TLAs. Like I also wish the vintage computer department
would not list toys, but I digress.

> I don't think there is one, I think there are several, just like there
> are at least two "TAP formats", both having to do with container files
> for tapes, only one is for proper serial magnetic media like I think
> we are discussing, and the other is for audio data cassettes on some
> 1980s bitty box (a Sinclair Spectrum I think).

Darn I really should read all the way before replying...

Actually, yes, I noticed that someone is using a format for
casette tapes, and also called it TAP. How tragic, they
should not be confused with each other...

> Are they going to care? Should they, so long as there's a reasonable
> way to down-convert a fancier tape container file format to their
> flavor of TAP format?

Well, having a common format makes it easier to exchange stuff.

-dq
Received on Thu May 02 2002 - 17:16:41 BST