VMS tapes -> UnixTM

[tihor at acf4.UUCP]

VAX/VMS copy mode means (1) ANSI standard headers per spec # whatever...
tools like ansitar or ansiw/ansir or the like, (2) HDR2 and HDR3 records with
the RMS format information in them.  What you need to find out is what
format the data in the files is being copied in since decrypting the RMS 
headers is a bitch.  

If you were getting text in a known language it would be easiest to take the
resulting file and just look at it to figure out the format since the 
most common file formats a real trivial to read, since they come out as
ANSI standard varioable length counted records, 4 ASCII digits followed by
that many chartacters, flipping over block boundaries with carefree abandone.
The speach data may be in a fixed block format in which case its just 
the blocking factor they specified when writing the tape.  Ask their 
systems people what RMS format the file was in before copying to tape and
what the first few records are.  That should be enough to get it.

[Me, I'd use a VMS system to read the tape but I'm a notorious lazy person.
Or a CDC Cyber if I am feeling perverse.  Aren;t ANSI standards wonderful.
Aren;t "standard operating systems" that ignore them more wonderful.]