POpen

[edexter]

I would like to run a simple command line program with popen (unless there is a better option)... I seem to be getting lost in the examples because they always define something as text and what I want is binary (or I am having trouble understanding why they are defining text). ... what I want to run is something like


empython programname functionname

(I compiled a c example from python)

[edexter]

I answered my own question... python uses popen (c varients cross platform) and free pascal uses a different method... This is modified from the wiki to execute a program (and is free pascal only)..

// This is a demo program that shows how to launch
 // an external program.
// program launchprogram;
 unit launchprogram;

interface

 procedure runprogram(name :string);
 // Here we include files that have useful functions
 // and procedures we will need.
// uses
//   Classes, SysUtils, Process;
 
 // This is defining the var "AProcess" as a variable 
 // of the type "TProcess"
 //var
//   AProcess: TProcess;
implementation
uses
 Classes, SysUtils, Process;
 
 // This is where our program starts to run
 procedure runprogram(name :string);
 var 
   AProcess: TProcess;
 begin;
   // Now we will create the TProcess object, and
   // assign it to the var AProcess.
   AProcess := TProcess.Create(nil);
 
   // Tell the new AProcess what the command to execute is.
   // Let's use the FreePascal compiler
   AProcess.CommandLine := name; //'ppc386 -h';
 
   // We will define an option for when the program
   // is run. This option will make sure that our program
   // does not continue until the program we will launch
   // has stopped running.                vvvvvvvvvvvvvv
   AProcess.Options := AProcess.Options + [poWaitOnExit];
 
   // Now that AProcess knows what the commandline is 
   // we will run it.
   AProcess.Execute;
 
   // This is not reached until ppc386 stops running.
   AProcess.Free;   
 end;
end.

[NecroDOME]

You can try ShellExecute, uses ShellAPI. (google for "ShellExecute Delphi", lots and lots of references!)