VDOS is the first DOS to support the Vortex format which become a standard format later on.
== RSX Commands in German and English; VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS Details ==* Some commands are available in German and English language. This is an advantage when using more than one DOS ROM at the same time.* Vortex is a German company, so they added RSX commands in German and English language. The normal AMSDOS RSX commands VDOS had both |TAPE.xx and |DRIVE/|USER were added as |CAS and |SELECT (which resemble equivalent German words word ''Kassette'' and ). (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 supports both the English and German language had |SELECT for RSX commandscompatibility).
|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 that is only because there are 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 this the data stored in the buffer differs compared to AMSDOS.
AMSDOS uses:
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 ==