On 12/16/2015 11:43 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 12/16/2015 11:11 AM, Dave Wade wrote:
CMS TAPE files are not intended to be used by other systems and the
format
is undocumented (well except a little in the source code) and has
changed
several times as disk formats have changed.
I've been on the receiving end of this before--several times. Damned
inconsiderate programmers with no thoughts of the future. Undocumented
format--how quaint.
Right now, I'm puzzling over a QIC tape that was apparently made early
on using Sytos, but the header doesn't match any version of Sytos that
I've seen. Wonderful.
I paid for Sytos backup a number of times, but they did run off the
rails mad with power.
Between them and SCO unix and general experiences concurrent with
Stallman's as far as proprietary software was what put me off onto Open
Source long in advance of Linux and GPL. I don't agree with the social
engineering aspects of Stallman, but I do not see that having hidden
source makes any more sense than having a car you can't open the hood
on. The engineers and company will loose interest in a product and that
sort of disposable attitude makes no sense.
Sytos had an excellent product for the time though as far as doing
backups. But the back end stuff as Chuck said, not so good.
--Chuck
