cut a tape

To write a software or document distribution on magnetic tape

for shipment. Has nothing to do with physically cutting the

medium! "Cutting a disk" has also been reported as live

usage. Related slang usages are mainstream business's "cut a

check", the recording industry's "cut a record", and the

military's "cut an order".

All of these usages reflect physical processes in obsolete

recording and duplication technologies. The first stage in

manufacturing an old-style vinyl record involved cutting

grooves in a stamping die with a precision lathe. More

mundanely, the dominant technology for mass duplication of

paper documents in pre-photocopying days involved "cutting a

stencil", punching away portions of the wax overlay on a silk

screen. More directly, paper tape with holes punched in it

was an important early storage medium.

[Jargon File]