Virtual Entry Station (VES)

Virtual Entry Station (VES) allows a CLI-like approach to the system from any task or library. VES permits access to virtually any system property. The application developer must take into account that, unlike regular programs and libraries, the string is passed to VES and interpreted and translated at run-time. Execution takes much more time than the equivalent line in the program.

The response of VES is an ASCII string that can be immediately printed or assigned to any string variable. Since VES involves translation and then interpretation, the result can also be an error message. To distinguish between a normal response and an error, VES attaches either a “D:” or an “E:” prefix to the output.

VES Example

Program
Dim s2 as string
Dim s1 as string
S2="?sys.time"
S1=VesExecute(s2)
Print s1
S1=VesExecute(“sys.time”) ‘ incorrect, returns syntax error
Print s1
End program
Output:
D:18:27:19
E:Error: 7039, "Syntax Error", Module: Translator