The VAX is running - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

4 Apr 2009

Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:

...
  In article
<f4eb766f0904031640g7c90507eo92411f16365021e1 at mail.gmail.com>,
     Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>  writes:

  > Back in the day, we used to move copies
around on magtape, bypassing
 > all sorts of stream-of-bytes issues.  Today, of course, most things
 > expect streams of bytes, so that's how most things are presented.  
 How does magtape avoid the stream-of-bytes issue? 
By the simple fact that a tape is *never* a stream of bytes?

Unix tries to mimic a stream of bytes on a tape, but as far as I know, 
noone wants that, and never uses it, instead going to the raw device, 
and doing all the operations a tape requires anyway.

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol