Rational Developer for System z
PL/I for Windows, Version 8.0, Programming Guide

AMTHD

The AMTHD option specifies the access method to access the data set.

Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram            .-FSYS----.
>>-AMTHD--(-+-ISAM----+-)--------------------------------------><
            +-BTRIEVE-+
            '-REMOTE--'
 
FSYS
Specifies that PL/I uses its native access methods to access a native file. This is the default.
ISAM
Specifies that the ISAM access method is to be used to access an ISAM file.
BTRIEVE (Windows)
Specifies that the BTRIEVE access method is to be used to access a BTRIEVE file.
REMOTE (Windows)
Specifies that the file resides on a remote DDM target system (such as MVS).

For Windows, the name of the file needs to be qualified by the LU alias or the fully-qualified SNA network name

FSYS is used by default if you do not specify the AMTHD option and if you do not apply one of the following ENVIRONMENT options:

If you specify any of the above options, AMTHD(ISAM)is the default on Windows while AMTHD(DDM) is the default on AIX.

Rational Developer for System z
PL/I for Windows, Version 8.0, Programming Guide