29 Jul
2020
29 Jul
'20
2:27 p.m.
On Jul 29, 2020, at 5:14 PM, Bill Degnan via cctech
<cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hi all.
I was wondering if there are any good online resources on reading for the
purpose of archiving 8-bit papertapes of unknown origin. I have been
reading tapes as text and also as binary, 8/n/1 thinking that's going to
capture everything. I load into a hex editor, and if necessary convert to
octal.
I am wondering if there any persons who have a systematic process they'd
like to share for this kind of work. I will share the tapes I have with the
community, but there is no point if I am not doing it right.
The starting point is what you described: capture all 8 bits in every frame. That
includes any embedded 0 (blank tape) frames in the middle. If the tape starts and ends
with 0 frames, it's reasonable to omit those, but 0 in the middle is often actual
data.
The other thing, of course, is to capture as accurately as possible any writing or labels
on the tape and/or any container it comes in.
paul