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→Germanized-English RSX Commands and VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS: Let's make this political correct :-) Further there is NO incompatibility, just by adding the same RSX in two languages. The reason is to be able to work with different DOS.
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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.


== Germanized-English RSX Commands and VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS ==
== RSX Commands in German and English; VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS ==
 
* 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 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).
* 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''). Also Dobbertin's X-DDOS does supports both the English and German languages).


|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 will autoboot a file called "HELLO" if it exists on the disc. AMSDOS doesn't have this.
* VDOS will autoboot a file called "HELLO" if it exists on the disc. AMSDOS doesn't have this.


== Manual ==
== Manual ==

Revision as of 11:59, 25 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.

RSX Commands in German and English; VDOS differences compared to AMSDOS

  • 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 |TAPE.xx and |DRIVE/|USER were added as |CAS and |SELECT (which resemble equivalent German words Kassette and Selektieren). Also Dobbertin's X-DDOS does supports both the English and German languages).

|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


Media

Download

Manual (German)

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