[TUHS] Software Archaeology Challenge?

[Dave Horsfall]

On Mon, 6 Apr 2020, Clem Cole wrote:

> He used RT-11 to copy each disk pack sequentially.   That's an ANSI VOL1 
> record.   Sadly it's not a full ANSI tape (long story -- it needs HDR1 
> records  VMS would have been able to mount it as a foreign tape.   

[ Probably getting COFF-ish now ]

Blimey, but that takes me back to my OS/360 days...  I once wrote a little 
utility (in assembly, of course) that dumped all the HDR/VOL/etc records.

It was a swine to debug (overnight processing because I was a student); I 
had to leave instructions to the operator to "ABEND with core dump" if the 
tape merely oscillated back and forth (which it did early on).

The first time, I got a snotty note from the operator saying that after 
watching the tape for half an hour he had to kill it; ah, the joys of 
overnight remote debugging...  Later on I became a volunteer operator on 
the graveyard shift and was able to sneak in the occasional "foreign 
order".

-- Dave