Difference between revisions of "VDOS"

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(→‎RSX Commands in German and English; VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS)
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VDOS is the first DOS to support the Vortex format which become a standard format later on.
 
VDOS is the first DOS to support the Vortex format which become a standard format later on.
  
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== RSX Commands in German and English; VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS ==
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== Details ==
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* Some commands are available in German and English language. This is an advantage when using more than one DOS ROM at the same time.
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* Vortex is a German company, so they added RSX commands in German and English language. VDOS had both |TAPE and |CAS (which resemble equivalent German word ''Kassette''). (Dobbertin's X-DDOS had the same for compatibility).
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* Vortex is a German company, so they added RSX commands in German and English language. The normal AMSDOS RSX commands |TAPE.xx and |DRIVE/|USER were added as |CAS and |SELECT (which resemble equivalent German words ''Kassette'' and ''Selektieren''). (Dobbertin's X-DDOS also supports both the English and German language for RSX commands).
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* |USER/|DRIVE did not exist in V1.0 instead |SELECT is used (which resemble equivalent German word ''Selektieren''). (Dobbertin's X-DDOS also had |SELECT for compatibility).
  
 
|SELECT is used to both select user and/or drive. e.g. |SELECT,"3" for user 3, |SELECT,"B" for drive B, |SELECT "4B" for user 4 on drive B. VDOS doesn't have USER or DRIVE commands.
 
|SELECT is used to both select user and/or drive. e.g. |SELECT,"3" for user 3, |SELECT,"B" for drive B, |SELECT "4B" for user 4 on drive B. VDOS doesn't have USER or DRIVE commands.
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* VDOS supplied both German ROMs (with messages in their native language) and English ROMs where the messages are translated. The RSX commands are identical.
 
* VDOS supplied both German ROMs (with messages in their native language) and English ROMs where the messages are translated. The RSX commands are identical.
  
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* When using CAS CATALOG you give the address of a buffer to fill with the list of files in the current user and drive (in SOFT968 this is a 2KB buffer - but that is only because there are 64 directory entries and each directory is 32 bytes). For VDOS you should use a 4KB buffer to support 128 directory entries). In addition the format of this data differs compared to AMSDOS.
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* When using the firmware function CAS CATALOG you give it the address of a buffer to fill with the list of files in the current user and drive (in SOFT968 this is a 2KB buffer but only because AMSDOS is limited to 64 directory entries and each directory is 32 bytes - 64x32 = 2048). For VDOS you should use a 4KB buffer to support 128 directory entries. In addition the format of the data stored in the buffer differs compared to AMSDOS.
  
 
AMSDOS uses:
 
AMSDOS uses:
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e.g. "B:TEST.BIN".
 
e.g. "B:TEST.BIN".
  
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Therefore it's recommended to use SELECT to specify the user.
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Therefore it's recommended to use SELECT to specify the user. A program should also not rely on the memory location of DOS specific data and poke it directly. Therefore it should use KL FIND COMMAND to detect |SELECT and use that if found, otherwise find and use |DRIVE and |USER. This allows maximum compatibility.
  
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* VDOS will autoboot a file called "HELLO.BAS" if it exists on the disc. AMSDOS doesn't have this.
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* VDOS will autoboot a file called "HELLO.BAS" if it exists on the disc. AMSDOS doesn't have this. This is VDOS's 'Turnkey' system.
  
 
== Manual ==
 
== Manual ==

Revision as of 06:23, 27 January 2018

The disc operating system VDOS was developed by the German company Vortex.

It was provided for use with the Vortex Disc Drives from Vortex (F1-D, F1-S, F1-X, M1-D, M1-S or M1-X).

VDOS was supplied on an EPROM, and was released in 3 versions:

  • VDOS 1.0
  • VDOS 2.0
  • VDOS 2.11

Further there were German and English versions of this ROMs.

The VDOS ROM also contained a machine language monitor.

VDOS is the first DOS to support the Vortex format which become a standard format later on.

Details

  • Vortex is a German company, so they added RSX commands in German and English language. VDOS had both |TAPE and |CAS (which resemble equivalent German word Kassette). (Dobbertin's X-DDOS had the same for compatibility).
  • |USER/|DRIVE did not exist in V1.0 instead |SELECT is used (which resemble equivalent German word Selektieren). (Dobbertin's X-DDOS also had |SELECT for compatibility).

|SELECT is used to both select user and/or drive. e.g. |SELECT,"3" for user 3, |SELECT,"B" for drive B, |SELECT "4B" for user 4 on drive B. VDOS doesn't have USER or DRIVE commands.

  • VDOS supplied both German ROMs (with messages in their native language) and English ROMs where the messages are translated. The RSX commands are identical.
  • When using the firmware function CAS CATALOG you give it the address of a buffer to fill with the list of files in the current user and drive (in SOFT968 this is a 2KB buffer but only because AMSDOS is limited to 64 directory entries and each directory is 32 bytes - 64x32 = 2048). For VDOS you should use a 4KB buffer to support 128 directory entries. In addition the format of the data stored in the buffer differs compared to AMSDOS.

AMSDOS uses:

<ff> <8 bytes filename> <3 bytes extension> <2 bytes size in K> with a byte of 00 to indicate the end of the list.

VDOS uses:

<user> <8 bytes filename> <3 bytes extension> <2 bytes size in K> with a byte of FF to indicate the end of the list.

This is important if you use CAS CATALOG and parse the data to fetch the list of files.

  • AMSDOS allows you to specify both the user and drive in a filename.

e.g. "3B:TEST.BIN" is valid and will try to find TEST.BIN in user 3 of drive B.

VDOS doesn't allow this. VDOS only allows the drive to be specified.

e.g. "B:TEST.BIN".

Therefore it's recommended to use SELECT to specify the user. A program should also not rely on the memory location of DOS specific data and poke it directly. Therefore it should use KL FIND COMMAND to detect |SELECT and use that if found, otherwise find and use |DRIVE and |USER. This allows maximum compatibility.

  • VDOS will autoboot a file called "HELLO.BAS" if it exists on the disc. AMSDOS doesn't have this. This is VDOS's 'Turnkey' system.

Manual


Media

  • Boot-up VDOS message

  • VDOS external look

  • Internals photo

Download

Manual (German)

  • VDOS 2.0 Manual (German)

  • Frontpage

  • Contents

  • Page 1

  • Page 2

  • Page 3

  • Page 4

  • Page 5

  • Page 6

  • Page 7

  • Page 8

  • Page 9

  • Page 10

  • Page 11

  • Page 12

  • Page 13

  • Page 14

  • Page 15

  • Page 16

  • Page 17

  • Page 18

  • Page 19

  • Page 20

  • Page 21

  • Page 22

  • Page 23

  • Page 24

  • Page 25

  • Page 26

  • Page 27

  • Page 28

  • Page 29

  • Page 30

  • Page 31

  • Page 32

  • Page 33

  • Erata page 1

  • Erata page 2

  • Erata page 3

  • Erata page 4

  • Erata page 5

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