SCSI Tape to TAP utility

[ANDY HOLT]

> Good OS-es allowed an operator to mount tapes for his next few jobs, 
> without paying attention to paper labels and have the OS automatically 
> locate and assign tapes to the proper job.


Even the old Operators Exec (and thus George 1 and 2) could do that 
on the ICL 1900 - I think it was referred-to as "AVR" (Automatic Volume Recognition)
I took it so much for granted that I did not even think of mentioning 
it in the operational requirement for the replacement system.
Quite a shock to discover its absence in GCOS on the Level 66.

(The reason for its absence on big multi-tasking machines was probably to do with
the scheduling on such being done by the OS, not the operators. Typically there
was an extra console by the tape decks which told the operators which tapes to load 
for the next couple of jobs and didn't even schedule the job until the appropriate
device was ready.)