The Virtual Machine Environment (VME) is a subsystem of
D3 Windows. It provides an ASCII mode that is backwards compatible
with previous Pick applications. See the D3 Reference Manual for more information on the VME.
The VME does not contain application files. User data is located outside the VME, stored on the D3 Windows file system distributed across the network. Data is accessed through the Open Systems File Interface (OSFI), which provides transparent access to D3 applications, and allows sharing data with Visual Basic applications or other VME environments on the network.
Asynchronous ASCII terminals connect directly to the VME and either built-in ports (COM1, COM2) or extension ports (COM1 to COM255 on Windows) are used.
The VME supports a set of devices that can be used as tapes to save and restore data from previous Pick implementations. The devices supported depend on the underlying host system.
The VME supports printer devices through the underlying host system. There are three types of printer interfaces: Direct Printers, Shared Printers, and Dedicated Printers.
When used as a direct printer, a form queue is assigned one-to-one with the associated printer device name (not the printer path) defined in the registry. For example, form queue 0 can be assigned to HP LaserJet 4L, which is the printer \\prod\hp4. In this example, the registry would designate the printer as HP LaserJet 4L. The printer name can be found in the Windows Printer Manager.
The maximum number of print files simultaneously opened for each process as used (for example, by the BASIC print on statement) is defined in the registry. This number should be relatively small since memory is allocated for each print file whether it is opened or not. For example, setting this number to 32 would allow up to 32 print files to be opened simultaneously per process.