TAPER.HLP USER INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE MAGNETIC TAPE READER ******************************************************************************* WRITTEN BY: ROGER MATUS, DOUGLAS BOHRER PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT, THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF CHICAGO 1 FIRST NATIONAL PLAZA, 22ND FLOOR CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60670 DATE: 11-JUN-80 ******************************************************************************* Neither First Chicago Corporation, the First National Bank of Chicago, nor any of its employees makes any warranty, either expressed or implied, assumes any legal liability, nor any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, product or process disclosed. Neither does First Chicago Corporation, the First National Bank of Chicago, nor any of its employees represent that use of this material would not infringe privately owned rights. ******************************************************************************* This is the user's guide for the TAPER system. Technical information is contained in the file TAPER.DOC. This guide gives step-by-step instructions and useful hints for operating TAPER. The format is to print, in order in which they might appear, the system prompts to the user and then list what the responses might mean. To start an installed TAPER system from monitor mode, the RT-11 user would simply type: R TAPER To halt execution of TAPER at any time, the user should type two C's in a row. This is done by holding the key down as the user might hold down a key. Then, type the letter C twice. Execution will stop almost immediately and the user will be in monitor mode. This might be called the "rip-cord" approach as the tape is not rewound and any open file may not be closed properly. A C in response to a question will halt execution without any open files. The system prompts will appear in all capital letters, while comments will be in lower case: 1. IS THIS AN EBCDIC TAPE (Y/N)? Answering "Y" will invoke the EBCDIC to ASCII translator for the remainder of the time the user is running the program. Answering "N" will leave the data unchanged. If the user doesn't know if the tape is ASCII or EBCDIC, the user should answer "N" to this question. Later, when the data is displayed, the user can see if the data makes sense. If not, the user can re-execute the program using the translator. If the user does not translate an EBCDIC character tape, many "@" usually appear when the record is displayed. When translated from EBCDIC to ASCII, the "@" becomes a space. TAPER.HLP -- PAGE 2 -- 2. AT BEGINNING OF TAPE (BOT). SKIP ANY FILES (Y/N) ? This program will tell the user how many files have been read by TAPER. If not at BOT, the user will be notified: AT THE BEGINNING OF FILE n. This is automatically adjusted when TAPER rewinds the tape (as it does whenever it is first executed). If there is only one file on the tape, or if the user wishes to read the first (or next) file, the answer "N" should be given. If the user wishes to pass the first (or next) file on the tape, the answer should be "Y". Note that header and trailer records, which end with tape marks, are considered files by the TAPER system. In effect, a tape mark tells TAPER that one file is done and the next file, if any, begins. If the user does not know if there are header and trailer files, the user would want to look at the first file. A telltale sign of a header is the presence of the letters HDR in the first three columns of the first record. 3. HOW MANY FILES SHOULD WE SKIP? This question is asked only if "Y" was answered in question two. The TAPER system will advance the number of tape marks mentioned in the answer. Remember that header and trailer records frequently have tape marks and will be included in the count. If the user is unsure about how many files to skip, it is better to guess low. It is always possible to skip a file and read on to the next file. However, it is not possible to skip back other than to rewind the entire tape and start from the BOT. 4. AT THE BEGINNING OF FILE n. THIS BLOCK HAS nnnn CHARACTERS. IT BEGINS WITH: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WANT THIS BLOCK (Y/N)? The program now gives the user important information. First, in the top line, is the block size. Then, up to 72 characters of this block are displayed. If the EBCDIC translator was invoked, these characters are translated. From this information, the user should be able to tell whether the translation or lack of translation is appropriate. Packed or numeric data will give an unpredictable display. It may be possible to see if this is a header record, which the user does not want written to disc, or even if it is the wrong file. If this block should not be written to disc for any of the reasons mentioned above, the answer should be "N". If the user answers "N" four times in a row, question 5 is asked. TAPER.HLP -- PAGE 3 -- 5. THIS WAS YOUR FOURTH TRY. GO TO NEW FILE (Y/N)? If the answer is "Y", the user will have the option to rewind to the BOT or to skip to the next file. The option is given in question 6, below. An answer of "N" will instruct the system to continue to try this file. If the user wishes to stop execution, two C's would be appropriate. 6. WANT TO REWIND TO BOT (Y/N)? An answer of "Y" will rewind the tape and start the sequence from question 2. An answer of "N" will instruct TAPER to skip until the next tape mark. 7. RECORD SIZE? If the user is here, then a file is about to be read. Any record size from 1 to 1020 will be accepted by TAPER. However, a record size greater than 132 will cause unpredictable results and the data is probably not reliable. TAPER cannot properly handle spanned records on the tape (see TAPER.DOC for details). The user should select a record size that divides evenly into the listed block size. TAPER will allow any record size that is in range, but will issue a warning if the record size does not divide evenly into any block (not just the first) that is read. 8. OUTPUT FILE NAME? The normal Digital Equipment rules of syntax apply here. Namely, DEV:FILENAME.EXT. The syntax is checked by the system as it tries to open a file. Therefore, a bad specification will cause a system error to occur. The user may designate any write-enabled device without a system error, however, the results to a serial device (i.e. line printer, terminal, card punch) may not be what is expected. To print a file, the user is advised to read it into disc and then print the file if space is available. At this point, the writing begins. If the system stops execution during the process (for a power failure or C's), the file will not be properly closed. A directory entry will appear, but the file will have no records. The records that were read will be lost. 9. READ MORE FILES (Y/N)? An answer of "Y" will give the user the option to read or skip the next file on the tape. A reply of "N" will rewind the tape and cause an exit from the program. 10. *** WARNING *** POSSIBLE LOGICAL END OF TAPE. READ ON (Y/N)? When two tape marks are found in a row, most systems consider it to be the end of the tape. Because foreign tapes may be read, TAPER does not make that assumption. The user is warned and given the option to stop or read on. If it was the logical end of tape, and the user does read on, it is possible for the tape to keep going and even spin off the reel. This can be halted by two C's. A response of "Y" will print a message, will rewind the tape and then exit the program.