Automatic Running Capability of MM/PC
An API is often required for tape handling. To read and write tapes is not a trivial task and very poorly supported by PC operating systems. When the additional problems of tape interchange are added, the best solution is a stand-alone program such as MediaMerge/PC (MM/PC) that will both handle tapes and read and convert in any format. The method that that MM/PC can be incorporated in an application program is in fact very simple.
MM/PC can be driven by a command line script file. An application program can therefore create a simple script giving details of drive to read, format, output location of files, etc., and then launch MM/PC even as an icon just to process the tapes required. Error messages are kept in a log file for later interrogation. The host program can be any type of program such as C++ or Visual Basic, and the interface will always remain constant with regular MM/PC updates.
The main advantage of using MM/PC as an API is that it contains handlers for all tape formats including Labeled tapes such as Unix, VAX VMS, ICL, ArcServe, Seagate backup and many more. No knowledge is required for either types of drives, or logical formats. It will even do basic EBCDIC to ASCII conversion. As MM/PC can be run as an icon, applications can run without ever needing to display the MM/PC user interface thus tape handling can be hidden within another user application.