[Cyan]<CedarChest6.0>Documentation>TapeToolDoc.tioga!2

TapeToolDoc.tioga

Last Edited by: Diebert, April 30, 1985 11:06:05 am PDT

Last Edited by: McCreight, February 26, 1985 6:04:48 pm PST

Tim Diebert May 28, 1985 9:14:28 am PDT

TAPETOOL

CEDAR 6.0 — FOR INTERNAL XEROX USE ONLY

Cedar Tape Tool Documentation

Release as: [Cedar]<CedarChest6.0>Documentation>TapeToolDoc.tioga

Abstract: This documentation describes the Cedar Tape Tool.

XEROX Xerox Corporation
Palo Alto Research Center
3333 Coyote Hill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304

For Internal Xerox Use Only

Introduction

The Cedar TapeTool is a replacement for the EBCDIC, PGT and TAPUT programs on Maxc. The operation of the tool is quite simple and this document will act as a guide to its use.

Tape Tool

The Tape Tool window is divided vertically into seven areas:

(1) The top area, contains only the Stop! button. The Stop! button causes an abort of the action currently in progress.

(2) The next area defines the TapeServer to use during the operations and at what density it should operate at.

(3) In the Operations area, the user selects the operation he/she wishes to perform. All of the operations sequences must start with Open in order to establish a connection with the server and to set the desired density on the tape. At the end of the session, (not necessarily at the end of each tape) the user must either Close or Unload the tape in order to release the connection with the tape server. All other commands do as you might expect.

(4) The Status area reports the status of the actions being take on the tape. This posts the ending tape status and the record number that the tool is working on during read or write.

(5) The File area contains information about which files to operate on as well as some physical parameters of the operation. The user may specify one or more file names or * enumerations, as well as the tape block size and the translation to be performed. IF there are *'s in the file name on read a file number is used to replace the * in forming the file number. In addition, by an entry in the user profile, the tool will offer a working directory entry and a switch about the inclusion of Tioga formatting information.

The conversions sub-area (bottom right) allows the user to specify one or more data conversions that take place between the tape and the disk file. You can cycle through all the available conversions by repeatedly pressing the left mouse button over the word "Conversions:". The conversions that are defined at this point are

FromEbcdic - converts an EBCDIC (that's IBM's big-computer character set) tape file to an ASCII disk file. Allowed only with Read.

ToEbcdic - converts an ASCII disk file to an EBCDIC tape file. Allowed only with Write. Displays the LRecl viewer so that blocking (in IBMs sense) works. If LRecl is not 0, the carrage returns will be removed and the logical record will be padded with blanks.

ToPGT - also converts an ASCII disk file to an EBCDIC tape file, except that blanks and carriage returns are not recorded. Allowed only with Write. This conversion is used primarily for writing pattern generator control tapes, for IC masks and the like. A few other Tape Tool settings are required for these pattern generator control tapes as well (800 bpi NRZI, Block size: 512), so a special command file has been set up that sets them all automatically: PGTape.load. Just say PGTape to the command tool.

ToANSIVariable - converts an ASCII disk file to an ANSI standard variable-length-record tape file. In ANSI standard variable-length-record format, a line is preceded by four decimal digits giving its length (including the extra four decimal digits), and its final carriage return is missing (and not counted). Lines are not broken across tape blocks, and to avoid this tape blocks are padded as necessary with the character '^. This conversion is allowed only with Write, and it ignores the Tape Tool's "Pad:" command field.

FromANSIVariable - converts an ANSI standard variable-length-record tape file to an ASCII disk file. The extra decimal digits and padding '^'s are stripped, and the missing carriage returns are re-inserted. Allowed only with Read.

It is possible (at least in principle) to combine several conversions in pipeline fashion by listing them in order, separated by spaces. The first conversion is closest to the tape, and the last closest to the disk. This combination hasn't been carefully tested.

Cedar programmers can easily add new conversions, which are implemented by layered IO.STREAM's, by registering them on the property list associated with the $Conversions property of the atom $TapeTool (look at the module TapeFmtConversion.mesa for details).

(6) The Confirmation area is used to display information about the state of the Tape Tool and ask for confirmation. The client may select Auto-Confirm or individually confirm each operation.

(7) The Session Log area provides a transcript of the operations performed.

The user profile entry

The user profile allows the user to determine whether or not local files should be eligible for reading or writing. The entry is:

TapeTool.Local: TRUE

Client interface

When a new Tape Tool starts, it registers its state (of the private type TapeToolInternal.TapeTool) as the $state property of the atom $TapeTool. Cedar programmers can do weird and wonderful things using the TapeStreams and Viewers interfaces and the various fields of the Tape Tool's state. I'm not sure this hackery should be encouraged, but I have done it myself.