On Tue, 5 Jul 2005, Joel VanderWerf wrote:

> Nigel Wilkinson wrote:
>> Hi folks
>>
>> I have a smell application from which I wish to display a file using an
>> external helper programme.
>>
>> Lets say
>> app = the external programme
>> file = the file to be displayed
>>
>> I've tried
>>
>> system(app, file)
>>
>> This works but it blocks my application. How can I fire up the helper
>> application in the background?
>
> Thread.new {system(app, file)}
>
> if all you want to do is start the process and you don't care about the
> output or return value. Otherwise, see Ara's solutions.

acutally, even if you do joel's may work

   Thread.new{system(app, file); $?.exitstatus}

and then it's available via thread.value.  this is much simpler than my
example.  i've just gotten in the habit of using popen or session since i
invariably end up needing to provide stdin or get stderr, etc.

cheers.

-a
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