i'm wondering if it's possible to call and run an external program;utility; or even (gasp) another engine, from within a-5.

some of my current plans are hinging upon this possibility.

the idea is, to be running an a-5 level and at a certain point call this external prog to run... when the external tasks are completed i wish to return to the a-5 level environment. my desire is to do this as seemlessly as i can, but of course it would help to know if it's even possible. (grin)

if any of you folks can shed a little light on this it would be very helpful

WDL manual p74.
exec(s1,s2);

thanks doug... greatly appreciated

Doug or fellow-users,

I'm looking at page 74, but whatever I do, my external program is not running. I've tried this:

exec("A5Test.exe","");

and this:

exec("A5Test","");

and this:

string Program = "A5Test.exe";
exec(Program,"");

and this:

string Program = "A5Test";
exec(Program,"");

And I have double and triple-checked that my external program is in the project's directory, there's a copy in the Template dir, too (which is where my path is set). But it won't run.

Do you see anything I'm missing?

I would sure appreciate any help,
Ron

From an old thread (Aug 2001):

command exec is supported in A4/A5 commercial and upper.
GSTools PackNLaunch has two functions GST_exec and GST_killfile (kills files only in the app directory) for use with standard versions of A4 an A5

Yes, I have the Commercial edition v5.24. Can't someone please list a short coding example. I cannot figure out why this won't work. Gamestudio's description is a bit vague, IMO. I'm calling the exec function from the main()function in my code, because my external program needs to start at appx. the same time as GameStudio.

Regards, Ron

I asked this question in ask conitec also and conitec moved it to begginers topics, but still no answer. i have tried everything you have tried with no success, i also have commercial.
i am beginging to think it doesn't actually work.

You know, I am having an incredible time trying to get anything done when a question poised to this forum usually, in my experience, takes about a week to get a reply, and then it is often in the form of RTFM.

I use quite a bit of software and am expert at some of them - not this one, of course - and I have never failed to help out someone with a question, when I could. I have often offered to look at their files, if my time permits, and often it has.

GameStudio appears to be a nice product, but this is about the 3rd time I have, in earnest, decided to do something with it but, invariably, the manual does not describe everything in the way that I can understand, it is sooooo slow to pry a reply from someone, and I just shelve the effort and work with other software. That's a shame. I complete many projects that I start, so I'm not a quitter.

One of the replies was read page 74 of the manual. Good advice, but take into account that if I (we) had not already read page 74 until my eyes bled, I would not even know of the existence of the exec function to ask a question about it anyway. The problem is that I have read page 74, I have tried - to the best of my abilities - to get it working on my own, but have failed to do so and am simply asking for help, just like the user who started this topic.

Isn't that what this forum is for?

Sincerely, Ron

HERE HERE.
In most cases RTFM works as most of the manual is good, but in this case i agree.
I understand the people at conitec are busy, but in cases where the manual is unclear they should be nice and give us an answer