Atari 400 User Manual page 16

(about S100 or less), cassette recorders are very
slow compared to disk drives and usually are not
as reliable. They also tend to be more prone
to
errors in loading programs. You may use either
an Atari program recorder or any regular cas-
sette recorder. Cassette recorders are discussed
in more detail in Chapter 4, "Peripherals."
Diskettes
A diskette, also known as a
disk,
or
floppy
disk,
is a round, thin sheet of plastic, coated with
magnetic oxide similar to the coating on a cas-
sette tape . This sheet is sealed in a jacket to
protect it from dust and dirt. When you buy a
diskette-based program, the program is stored
on the magnetic material inside the non-
removable jacket.
While diskette-based programs are usually more
expensive than cassette-based programs, disk-
ettes have certain advantages over cassettes.
Loading a program from a disk drive is much
faster-and far more accurate-than loading a
program from a cassette recorder. In addition,
there are many more programs available on disk-
ette than cassette. Also, when you store your
own work, you can store many programs (de-
pending on their size) on a diskette, as opposed
to the recommended one program on each side
of a cassette. If you will be creating your own
programs, or if you will be saving files such as
letters and reports, you will find diskettes
cheaper and more manageable than cassettes.
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