> On Jan 7, 2008 1:01 PM, Alex LeDonne <aledonne.listmail / gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>
>> Using "start" involves some special option parsing in the shell. This
>> only works with the one-argument form of the exec call, since "start"
>> is a shell built-in. You have to include the blank argument (window
>> title override - ignored (I think) when there's no interactive  
>> command
>> shell window).
>>
>> I believe this works with any path permitted under Windows. AND, it
>> will work for other languages, including your Perl case above.
>>
>> Here's a base document on Windows Shell's "Start" command:
>> http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/ 
>> proddocs/en-us/start.mspx?mfr=true
>>
>> I hope this is handy for anyone used to a *nix platform, launching
>> executables, and wanting to go cross-platform to Windows.
>>

We in the rubyunix project are currently working on this right now.  
What you can you do just pass an empty string to exec, along with the  
command. This causes it to skip the shell, and instead execute the  
file directly. IE (for *nix),

fork { exec("ls", "") }