From: cs96and@... (Alan)
Date: 2003-05-13T19:10:58+09:00
Subject: TK Message box and backquotes issue

Hello,

I've discovered a strange bug/feature in ruby.  This is using v1.6.8
on windows.

Basically, if you display a TK message box, and then try to execute a
command using backquotes, you get a very long pause before the
backquotes line is executed.

e.g.

require 'tk'

def msgBox(title, msg, icon='info')
	root = TkRoot.new { withdraw }
	Tk::messageBox('title'=>title, 'message'=>msg, 'icon'=>icon,
'type'=>'ok')
	root.destroy
end

msgBox('Test', 'Here is a message box')
puts "about to run 'start c:\\'"
`start c:\\`

will produce this:
<message box pops up>
<user clicks OK>
about to run 'start c:\'
<long pause - Ctrl-C doesn't work>
<explorer window pops up>

If you replace the backquotes line with:
exec 'explorer.exe', '/n,c:\\'
then it works fine.

Am i doing something wrong, or is this an issue with ruby under
windows?  I don't have linux installed to see if the same thing
happens (you can put any command in the backquotes, it doesn't have to
be 'start')