On Mon, 2 Jan 2006, Hauke Fath wrote:

> Back in the times of CP/M, LOAD created an executable program, and LINK was
> a "linking loader". My associations went that way first - "load" seems too
> generic a term for a command that pulls in a cdrom drive tray.

Yeah, I agree. My first thought upon seeing "load" is that it's a loader
for CP/M, MTS, or some equally antediluvian system.

> What other devices are there that are capable of sucking in media?

CD-ROM changers do it, a changer was ususally seen as a separate device
for each disk in the changer, and accessing a device for a different
CD-ROM other than the currently loaded one unloaded the current one and
loaded the selected one.

Tape changers also do so, but in the simplest format (a "gravity
stacker"), simply loaded the next tape in the sequence after receiving
an eject command. More sophisticated ones with SCSI interfaces could use
SCSI CHIO commands, which could be sent to the changer device with the
chio(1) utility. Some CD-ROM changers can also use this, and "chio load"
will load media in one of those.

Also, "mt offline" has ejected a tape since before eject existed.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson            <cjs@cynic.net>             +81 90 7737 2974
   The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
   by those who have not got it.    --George Bernard Shaw