9 track tapes and block sizes

[Al Kossow]

On 10/2/20 1:42 PM, Eric Smith via cctalk wrote:

> Of course, that scheme breaks programs that use tape images but don't
> expect enormous or "negative" record lengths.

Those would already be broken with Bob's use of large negative numbers for physical end of
tape and 'bad block is here' (you don't get to know how big that bad block was, so that is
hell with tapes with variable-length records, grumble..)

But for all the people who get clean reads off their tapes, none of this is an issue.
I wish I was so lucky.