Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!sun!imagen!atari!kbad
From: kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Pexec() and shel_write()
Summary: Don't use shel_write from anyplace but the desktop.
Message-ID: <1554@atari.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jun 89 02:29:45 GMT
References: <4048@merlin.usc.edu>
Reply-To: kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher)
Organization: Atari Corp., Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 24


The current incarnation of shel_write is only useful to chain to
another program when you are run from the desktop.   If you need
to run programs which chain via shel_write from a shell program,
the shell program must intercept trap #2 and look for shel_write
calls, and handle them itself.

This is precisely the same problem NeoDesk was having. In my opinion,
the solution of having a "shel_write patch" program in your computer
all the time is suboptimal.  All that is necessary is for the "shell"
type program to perform the shel_write calls itself via Pexec.  That's
all the AES does when a program uses shel_write to chain to another
program.  Rather than restarting the desktop, the AES shell Pexecs
the program whose name was shel_written.

This and other sticky shel_stuff will be covered by the forthcoming
(yeah, it's been forthcoming for about 6 months now, so sue me...)
shel_games document.


-- 
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>