RE: trimming trailing blanks in spooled output...

re: longevity of media--  Tape wins.  As far as I know, "burn it 
yourself" CDs are only good for 5 years or so... we have tapes more 
than 10 years old that are (mostly) still readable.  I 'assume' that 
burn-your-own DVDs have similar life to CDs.

Well according to the NIST here: 
http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/CDandDVDCareandHandlingGuide.pdf
"Among the digital media, prerecorded and write-once optical discs are more 
stable than digital magnetic tape. Neither optical discs nor magnetic tape, 
however, is as stable as microfilm or paper."

Also, another quote:

"Among the manufacturers that have done testing, there is consensus that, under 
recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life 
expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more; CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM 
discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years or more. Little information
is available for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs (including audio and video), 
resulting in an increased level of uncertainty for their life expectancy. 
Expectations vary from 20 to 100 years for these discs.
Few, if any, life expectancy reports for these discs have been published
by independent laboratories. An accelerated aging study at NIST estimated the 
life expectancy of one type of DVD-R for authoring
disc to be 30 years if stored at 25°C (77°F) and 50% relative humidity.
This testing for R discs is in the preliminary stages, and much more needs to 
be done."

HTH,

Charles Wilt
--
iSeries Systems Administrator / Developer
Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America
ph: 513-573-4343
fax: 513-398-1121