THIS IS THE DOCUMENTATION FILE FOR THE TAPBLK.MAC PROGRAM. 1) AUTHOR: ANDY COPANAS--DEC,MAYNARD 2) DATE SUBMITTED: JANUARY 25,1971 3) PURPOSE: THIS PROGRAM IS TO BE USED FOR BLOCKING FILES WRITTEN ON MAGTAPE INTO STANDARD SIZE RECORDS (128 WDS/RECORD IS STANDARD FOR DISK) AND PUTTING THESE FILES ON THE DISK. (THIS PROGRAM WILL ALSO WORK FOR TAPES WRITTEN WITH STANDARD RECORD SIZES, BUT WHY WOULD ONE NEED TO BLOCK THOSE ANYWAY?) 4) PROGRAM OPERATION: THE PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO ACCEPT ANY RECORD SIZE FROM THE TAPE. IT HAS AN EXPANDABLE BUFFER FOR INPUT AND EXECUTES CORE UUO'S TO KEEP ENLARGING ITSELF UNTIL IT CAN READ THE RECORDS. IT HAS AUTOMATIC BACK- SPACING TO POSITION ITSELF FOR RETRIES, BUT THERE ARE NO OTHER PHYSICAL SPACING OPERATIONS. THIS PROGRAM READS THE TAPE IN IMAGE MODE, 36 BITS/BYTE, AND TRANSFERS DATA TO DISK EXACTLY AS IT APPEARS IN THE BUFFER. NO CHECKSUMMING IS DONE, AND NO LINE BREAK CHARACTERS (C.R.,LINE FEED,TABS,ETC) ARE INSERTED. THIS IS LEFT TO THE USER. THE USER CAN SPECIFY THE PARITY,DENSITY,AND TYPE OF TAPE THAT HE IS READING BY ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS AT THE START OF THE PROGRAM. A CARRIAGE RETURN CAN BE USED TO INDICATE A NEGATIVE RESPONSE, OR TO FORCE THE DEFAULT RESPONSE. ONCE THE INITIAL CONDITIONS ARE SET, THE VALUES CANNOT BE CHANGED WITHOUT RESTARTING THE PROGRAM. THE PROGRAM WILL ASSIGN FILE NAMES TO EACH FILE FROM THE TAPE IN AN OCTAL SEQUENCE BEGINNING WITH "T00001". THESE FILENAMES WILL GO "T00001","T00002","T00003", ETC. AS LONG AS YOU RUN, THESE FILENAMES WILL BE GENERATED FOR EACH NEW FILE. TAPBLK ASSIGNS <157> PROTECTION TO ALL T0000N FILES TO PRE- VENT ACCIDENTAL DELETION UPON LOGOUT. THE PROGRAM IS REENTRANT AND RESTARTS FROM THE BEGINNING IF YOU TYPE "REENTER" FROM THE TTY. IF YOU EXIT FROM THE PROG- RAM FOR ANY REASON, AND WISH TO RESTART AGAIN, YOU MUST RENAME ALL PREVIOUS T0000N FILES OR THEY WILL BE WRITTEN OVER. THE FILENAME COUNTER ALWAYS STARTS WITH "T00001" WHEN THE PROGRAM IS RESTARTED. ERROR CHECKING IS PERFORMED AND APPROPRIATE MESSAGES, WITH SUGGESTED RECOVERY TECHNIQUES, ARE TYPED OUT ON THE USER'S TTY. ALL SEVERE ERROR SITUATIONS WILL STOP I/O TRANSFER AND RETURN CONTROL TO THE USER. HE MUST INITIATE ANY RECOVERY PROCEDURES. TAPBLK WILL DETECT LOGICAL END OF TAPE (2 END OF FILE MARKS) AND SO INDICATE TO THE USER. THEREFORE, THE LAST OUTPUT FILE ON DISK SHOULD BE A FILE OF ZERO BLOCKS, SINCE AN ENTER WAS DONE FOLLOWED BY A CLOSE FORCED BY THE 2ND EOF MARK AND NO DATA WAS WRITTEN OUT. MULTIPLE REEL FILES CAN ALSO BE BLOCKED. UPON REACHING THE END OF TAPE MARK, USER IS ASKED IF HE WISHES TO CONTINUE DATA TRANSFER, OR CLOSE THE OUTPUT FILE AND EXIT. IF HE ELECTS TO CONTINUE, A NEW TAPE CAN BE MOUNTED. THEN USER TYPES A CARRIAGE RETURN AND HIS DATA NOW GOES INTO THE LAST FILE PREVIOUSLY OPENED FOR OUTPUT. 5) OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS: ASSIGN THE MAGTAPE AS LOGICAL NAME "INN", AND THE DISK AS LOGICAL NAME "OUT". NO OTHER PROGRAMS OR SUBROUTINES ARE NEEDED. 6) SAMPLE OPERATION: .LOG JOB 11 DEC DATA CENTER SYS#169 TTY11 #13,602 PASSWORD: 1412 25-JAN-71 .AS MTA1 INN MTA1 ASSIGNED .AS DSK OUT DSK ASSIGNED .EXECUTE TAPBLK MACRO: TAPBLK LOADING LOADER 2K CORE EXECUTION TYPE "E" FOR EVEN PARITY ON INPUT TAPE. (DEFAULT VALUE IS ODD) E TYPE 2,5,OR 8 FOR 200,556,OR 800 BPI INPUT. (DEFAULT VALE IS THE SYSTEM STANDARD) 8 TYPE 1 FOR 9 TRACK INDUSTRY STANDARD MODE. (I.E. IBM TAPES) TYPE 2 FOR DEC 7 OR 9 TRACK (NON-STANDARD), OR TYPE 3 TO CLOSE FILES AND EXIT (DEFAULT VALUE IS 1) 2 EOF ON INPUT TAPE TYPE 1 FOR 9 TRACK INDUSTRY STANDARD MODE. (ETC.) 2 EOF ON INPUT TAPE TYPE 1 FOR 9 TRACK (ETC) 2 REACHED LOGICAL END OF TAPE (2 EOF'S TOGETHER) TYPE 1 FOR 9 TRACK (ETC) 3 EXIT .DIR DIRECTORY 13,602 15:21 25-JAN-71 DSKB: TAPBLK MAC 07 <157> 19-JAN-71 TAPBLK BAK 07 <157> 19-JAN-71 TAPBLK REL 05 <057> 25-JAN-71 TAPBLK DOC 07 <157> 25-JAN-71 T00001 76 <157> 25-JAN-71 T00002 41 <157> 25-JAN-71 T00003 00 <157> 25-JAN-71 TOTAL BLOCKS 143 DSKC: .KJOB CONFIRM: S JOB 11, USER [13,602] LOGGED OFF TTY11 1545 25-JAN-71 SAVED ALL 7 FILES (160. DISK BLOCKS) RUNTIME 1 MIN, 10.57 SEC .