From: "ilsemanetor@..." <ilsemanetor@...>
Date: 2006-08-11T09:25:06+09:00
Subject: Re: Start an external application - How?


Joe Percival wrote:
> I don't need details, just a push in the right direction.
>
> How do you start a series of external applications from within ruby (on
> windows).  For example, I want to start mywebcamapp.exe and
> myweatherapp.exe.
>
> Also, is it possible to have a ruby script that will stop an external
> process?
>
> Thanks,
> joe
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Anyone more knowledgable, please correct the below:
Basically, you will either want to use Threads or multiple processes.I
don't have much experience with threads, and little more with
processes. From the pickaxe (Programming Ruby), it seems that threads
may wait for the operating system call to finish before allowing both
itself and all other threads to continue. A thread is also internal to
the currently running ruby or irb session, and as such are much more
useful executing ruby code. That being said, Threads provide alot of
neat features and such.

What you probably want is a new process.

fork do
  `my_program.exe`
end

and then if you ever want you program to wait for the termination of
all your applications running, use:

Process.waitall

Note that forking and new processes and such are many times operating
system dependent. I have no clue as to if Windows supports this (I
think it does, it may be pipes that it has more issues with).