EVERHART%ARISIA.DECnet@GE-CRD.ARPA (07/28/88)
Ed Wilts asks for a fast tape-tape copier. I use two programs for this. Tape-tape, I use Roger Jenkins' TCOPY program. It's double buffered and quite fast. Also format independent. His docs mention it used to cause problems on his machine, long ago traced to buggy microcode in his non-dec tapedrives, also fixed long ago. Never a glitch anywhere else. For tape-disk-tape, I use Brian Nelson's VMSTPC, which runs like a bat out of the nether regions. Both are totally format independent and VMSTPC WILL keep streamers streaming, provided your working set is big enough. I've been putting these in [vax000.tools] on the Spring '88 VAX SIG tapes, and plan to continue to do so; these programs are ones that ANY site doing tape copies should have. In another message, the [xxx,yyy] UIC format was decried. I very much hope that this will be retained indefinitely. There are a few old RSX .tsk images I use which would fail if this format were unknown. Natch, I don't run 'em often (hence it isn't worth converting them to native mode or replacing them), but they are useful and I do NOT want them broken. Vendors who use this format in new code should indeed be discouraged, but I suggest that refusing to buy their stuff, and PUBLISHING WHO THEY ARE, would be far more effective, and would not damage those with legitimate uses for the old stuff. Glenn Everhart Everhart%Arisia.decnet@ge-crd.arpa