Discussion of large systems

[Chuck Guzis]

On 1 Nov 2006 at 9:54, C Sullivan wrote:

> As to WHY you'd want to do a sort onto tape, my To: field says this  
> is the classic computer mailing list.  It sounds like a fun project  
> for somebody who as an old PDP (and the space for six tape drives) or  
> similar lying around.  Heck, it might even make a fun programming  
> project to "emulate" it using a bitty box and some virtual "tape  
> drives".  Lastly, it would make a great academic project for teaching.

I suppose that if it was "performance art" that someone wanted to 
create, the effect would be more spectacular if paper tape 
punch/readers were used.  No reason why it shouldn't work...AFAIK, 
all of the access in the algorithms is write/read/rewind; no fancy 
random skipping.

Cheers,
Chuck