[TUHS] Determining what was on a tape back in the day

[stewart@serissa.com (Lawrence Stewart)]

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> On 2017, Nov 18, at 6:16 PM, Don Hopkins <don at DonHopkins.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I have been wondering about that for years. 
> 
> Here’s the manual! LISTREVERSE is documented on page 9-3. Maybe if I printed out the "READERS COMMENTS" form at the back of the manual, wrote my question in big upper case block letters, then ticked the "If you require a written reply, please check here” checkbox, then “Fold Here” and “Do Not Tear - Fold Here and Staple” as instructed, I could mail in the free first class pre-addressed, business reply mail, no postage stamp necessary if mailed inside the United States envelope, and they’d write me back a nice letter telling me what the fuck they were thinking. 
> 
> http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/www.computer.museum.uq.edu.au/pdf/DEC-20-LBMAA-A-D%20BASIC%20User%27s%20Guide.pdf <http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/www.computer.museum.uq.edu.au/pdf/DEC-20-LBMAA-A-D%20BASIC%20User's%20Guide.pdf>
> 
> -Don
> 

The thing is, the sort of people in engineering at Digital would do exactly that.  The apocryphal case is when someone asked why the base of VMS DAYTIME was November 17, 1858 and got the following back:

http://h41379.www4.hpe.com/wizard/wiz_2315.html <http://h41379.www4.hpe.com/wizard/wiz_2315.html>

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