Greg A. Woods wrote...
> [ On Saturday, April 3, 1999 at 23:37:22 (-0700), Kenneth D. Merry wrote: ]
> > Subject: Re: kern/7300: 'chio ielem' does not work well
> >
> > It does an inventory on startup, and has sensors on the door, so I suppose
> > it knows pretty well where all the tapes are.
> > 
> > The Ampex also does an inventory on startup, and doesn't really need the
> > initialize element status.
> 
> Yes, I've heard there are some libraries that are smart enough to do
> this, if configured so.
> 
> However I've also heard of others that use bar-code readers to try and
> read the physical label on the media, and that this operation can
> sometimes be unreliable and require several retries.

The Ampex library in question may require (I'd have to look through the
docs again to be sure) bar codes on the tapes.  It scans all the bar codes
when it powers on, and doesn't seem to take too long doing it.  Then again,
I only stuck two tapes in the thing.

> Then there's the question of what happens when your library accomodates
> hundreds or thousands, or more media slots....  ;-)

I think in those cases, the libraries in question often consist of multiple
libraries connected via portals.

Ken
-- 
Kenneth Merry
ken@plutotech.com