Topic       : The ATARI Compendium
Author      : Scott Sanders / JAY Software
Version     : 1.25 (20/6/2003)
Subject     : Documentation
Nodes       : 1117
Index Size  : 32614
HCP-Version : 6
Compiled on : Atari
@charset    : UTF-8
@lang       : en
@default    : 
@help       : %About
@options    : +g -i -t4 +y +z
@width      : 100
View Ref-File                                                                    C07
                                   VDI


The Virtual Device Interface (VDI) is a collection of drivers designed to
provide applications with a device-independent method of accessing
graphically based devices such as monitors, printers, and plotters.
Applications which are written to use the VDI rather than directly
accessing hardware will be compatible with all currently available devices
including those which have not yet been developed.

All Atari systems with TOS in ROM include a VDI screen driver adaptable
to each display resolution the system can support. Soft-loaded screen
drivers and drivers for other devices are loaded through a VDI sub-system
called the Graphics Device Operating System (GDOS).

The GDOS system is disk-loaded as a TSRTermitate and Stay Resident programm
 utility at bootup. It loads
device drivers based upon the contents of its configuration file(s).

Applications wishing to use the GDOS extensions must verify its presence
using the method described later in this chapter. If an application's
output will be limited to the screen and no font other than the system
font is needed, then the presence of GDOS is not mandatory.


   ∙ VDI Workstations
   ∙ Workstation Specifics
   ∙ Using Color
   ∙ VDI Raster Forms
   ∙ Vector Handling
   ∙ GDOS
      ° GDOS 1.x
      ° FONTGDOS
      ° FSM-GDOS
      ° SpeedoGDOS
   ∙ Device Drivers
   ∙ VDI Function Calling Procedure
   ∙ VDI/GDOS Function Reference