From: zesar <jonnypichler@...>
Date: 2003-01-12T05:51:30+09:00
Subject: how to call an .exe? / how to access a rb-script via webserver?

i'm currently working out a solution for an interesting problem

the headmaster of our school is going to visit a foreign school and he wants
to show them, how "cool" our school is - whatever.

we wrote some programs to move a robot-arm - unfortunately in C - so they're
built to an .exe-file on a win32-client in our school's network.

and our headmaster wants to call this program via a web-interface and show
the foreigners via a webcam how our robot is moving...

the main problem is: how will i get the supplied movement instructions from
our schools webserver to the win32-client the robot is connected to.

i want to use dRuby for this job which is quite simple and should do very
fine.
all i want to do is passing a preprocessed string from the webserver to the
client in our LAN. the string will contain the parameters for robot_move.exe

two main questions remain (for i am very much a ruby-newbie)...
- what is the best (most convenient) way to call a ruby script (on the
server) out of a html-form? ruby should then be able to retrieve the value
of a hidden field in this form...
- how do i call robot_move.exe including the recieved parameters from the
server in the client-script? i mean - it's clear to me how to get the
parameterstring from server to client - but how to call robot_move.exe out
of recieve_params.rb?

thx in advance for answers, tipps, suggestions, etc ;-))
patrick