Automatic Running Capability of MM/PC
Reading and writing to tapes is not a trivial task and is 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), an API toolkit which can be used to handle tapes and read and convert in any format. The method for using MM/PC with 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 can then launch MM/PC to process the required tapes. 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 drive types, or logical formats. MM/PC will even do basic EBCDIC to ASCII conversion. Since 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.