> > Not CP/M admittedly, but small contemporary > Burroughs machines certainly used cassettes, both > for program and data storage. I wrote several > fairly complex diskless accounting systems using > four cassette drives, one or two card readers and > a line printer (in addition to the console > printer). > > Why not; not much different conceptually after all > from early systems using open-reel mag tape, or > even punch(ed) cards.
I feel there are 2 distinct types of cassette system from the user perspective. The first is the sort used on 1980s home computers with a standard or slightly modified (Commodore, Atari) audio cassette recorder. These needed considerable manual intervention to position the tape (rewind, fast forward), select record or play mode, etc. Essentially only useable for loading/saving programs and sequential files The second has the tape mechanism under computer control like the HP9830 (HP9865 add-on drive too), this Burroughs the PX8, etc. With these you can load particular files, rewrite files, possibly have a block-structured file system. Often these units (but not the PX8) used a special tape with a different coercivity to audio tape. The second type would seem to be entirely useable for 'business' computing before floppy drives were available. I am not so sure about the first type :-) -tony