From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2005-09-20T02:00:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Handling multiple processes on Windows

Gregory Brown wrote:

> So my question is, how exactly would you go about writing a program
> that could fire a process to a command line application, let it run,
> give control back to your main program, and kill the process if an
> event occurs (Like the pressing of a 'stop' button or even command line
> interaction).
> 
> I thought about threading but since the threads are done in process I'm
> afraid of explosions and complications galore.

Use a ruby thread to manage the external process. There are some libs
for this (session is one, I think it will give you better access to
in/out/err streams). But ruby itself has some basic support:

cmd_th = Thread.new do
  system "something"
end

if user_presses_stop
  cmd_th.kill
end

-- 
      vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407