HP-IL checksums or not

[hth]

I have implemented a couple of HP-IL routines to read and write a page to and from 41CL physical memory.

HP uses checksums in their files and an leaning towards doing the same. In that case it would seem most logical to use CRC32 as is done by the YCRC command.

But why are there checksums, and are they needed today?
HP-IL passes messages around and it is strongly recommended practise to verify the data when the frame comes back. Thus, the HP-IL protocol should not introduce any errors. I suppose the reason for checksums was that the magnetic tapes used were not entirely reliable/trusted and detecting a problem would be a good thing to ensure data integrity.

So, is this needed today? If people still use old storage media, then probably yes. For PILBox simulation, maybe not? On the other hand, it would be consistent with existing routines to have a checksum.

So I am pondering over if a CRC32 checksum should be written or not (or something simpler), what do you think?

Håkan