Difference between revisions of "VDOS"
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VDOS supported as first DOS the Vortex format, which become a standard format later on. | VDOS supported as first DOS the Vortex format, which become a standard format later on. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Germanized-English RSX Commands and VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS == | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Vortex apparently considered the normal AMSDOS RSX commands |TAPE.xx and |DRIVE/|USER too difficult for german users, and changed them to |CAS and |SELECT (which resemble equivalent german words ''Kassette'' and ''Selektieren''). This is making VDOS slightly incompatible with AMSDOS and all other AMSDOS clones (except for Dobbertin's X-DDOS, which supports both the english and germanized dialects). | ||
| + | |||
| + | |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. | ||
| + | |||
| + | * When using CAS CATALOG you give the address of a buffer to fill with the list of files in the current user and drive. The format of this data 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. | ||
| + | |||
| + | * VDOS will autoboot a file called "HELLO" if it exists on the disc. AMSDOS doesn't have this. | ||
| + | |||
== Manual == | == Manual == | ||
Revision as of 09:03, 21 January 2018
The disc operating system VDOS was developped 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 supported as first DOS the Vortex format, which become a standard format later on.
Contents
Germanized-English RSX Commands and VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS
- Vortex apparently considered the normal AMSDOS RSX commands |TAPE.xx and |DRIVE/|USER too difficult for german users, and changed them to |CAS and |SELECT (which resemble equivalent german words Kassette and Selektieren). This is making VDOS slightly incompatible with AMSDOS and all other AMSDOS clones (except for Dobbertin's X-DDOS, which supports both the english and germanized dialects).
|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.
- When using CAS CATALOG you give the address of a buffer to fill with the list of files in the current user and drive. The format of this data 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.
- VDOS will autoboot a file called "HELLO" if it exists on the disc. AMSDOS doesn't have this.
Manual
- Vortex Vdos 2.0 Manual (pdf)
(also describes how to upgrade from VDOS 1.0 to 2.0)
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
