On 1/8/25 19:22, Rich Alderson via cctalk wrote: > A 7 track tape should have the 36 data bits across 6 frames, unlike the 9 > track > usage of 5x8 with zero padding in the 5th. > > Someone familiar with the TENEX file system (i. e., TOPS-20 lite) should be > able to decipher the block headers easily enough. There's at least one of us > on the list.
I'm familiar with the data format; back around 1975, a DEC CE friend smuggled a tape (don't recall if it was 7 or 9 track) of Colossal Cave Adventure to me. I figured out the 36 bit 5 x 7bit character scheme back then and got the thing running on a Cyber 74 running SCOPE. Darned thing spread like wildfire at SVLOPS to the extent that COMSOURCE wrote a "search and destroy" program. Did Tenex employ the Rad50 file naming scheme? --Chuck
