Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!mcdchg!chinet!att!alberta!ubc-cs!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!tness1!nuchat!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Spawning programs, problems and questions
Message-ID: <2928@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 30 Oct 88 13:24:22 GMT
References: <4973@garfield.MUN.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 34

Spawning new programs in a CLI environment.

Sigh.

Yes, the CLI environment is damn fragile. If you don't make it just right
it'll barf on you. And some programs (Manx VI, for example) go out of their
way to make sure they're in one... they do weird things like opening new
windows if you get the slightest thing wrong. Finally, Execute sometimes just
plain hangs you. I don't know whether it's because the CLI environment is
wrong, whether it's detach.o, or whether it's ARP stuff... it's just not
reliable. fexecv is bogus: why go to the trouble of parsing your CLI command
line into arguments just to have it pack it back into a command line? Why
didn't they just implement system()?

If anyone can provide an implementation of "system()" that works:

	(1) From the workbench,
	(2) From the CLI,
	(3) From detached processes, and
	(4) From processes with no CLI structure at all

I'll be able to get Browser with CLI support out that much faster. Otherwise
I'm probably going to break down and give up on it. It's just not worth the
aggaravation to me. I'll probably have some support via IconX, since I can do
a nice clean workbench launch for that...

Oh why didn't Commodore or MetaComCo or whoever make CLI work as a TOOL for a
PROJECT icon in the first place? I hope the various shells will do this.

-- 
		Peter da Silva  `-_-'  peter@sugar.uu.net
		 Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?

	Disclaimer: I accept full responsibility for my own typos.