[TUHS] [simh] 2bsd tarball
Dave Horsfall
dave at horsfall.org
Wed Aug 12 09:55:49 AEST 2020
On Wed, 29 Jul 2020, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> However, seek times on DECtape aren't really comparable to magtape
> either. Because DECtape deals with absolute block numbers. So you can
> always, no matter where you are, find out where you are, and how far you
> will need to move to get to the correct block.
>
> With magtapes, this is pretty much impossible. You'll have to rewind,
> and then start seeking.
Not if you used 512-byte blocks, and mounted it read-only; that way, you
could use it as a file system (and I did, just for fun). Oh, you also
needed a clever tape driver, of course. And the IRG was a bit of a
problem, chewing up a lot of tape space.
I posted this here a while back, and some idiot (his name is not
important) practically called me a liar, until he was handed his arse
on a plate by someone else with better knowledge than him.
-- Dave
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