So I was writing a file manager/app launch program in qb4.5, and suddenly
I had a problem. If I use shell to launch external apps, then according
to the help files, QB stays resident in memory. I'm doing this for an old
laptop I resucitated and it doesn't have the memory to spare. How else
can I launch those external programs?

Thanks,
Paul

Another more flexible possibility is that the QB4.5 program create another
BAT file, and the original BAT file can test for its existence, and CALL
it if it exists.  This way the QB4.5 program can easily cause any other
program of any name to be executed on the fly, or even do other commands

this can happen with a clean screen display.
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"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
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: There is a method which works, though it may sound a bit kludgy.  Create
: a BAT file, and execute the QB4.5 program from it.  If the QB4.5 program
: needs to run another program, then it can create a temporary file.  When
: the QB4.5 program exits, the BAT file can check for the existence of the
: temporary file.  If it exists, then the BAT file deletes the temporary
: file and runs the second program.

: Another more flexible possibility is that the QB4.5 program create another
: BAT file, and the original BAT file can test for its existence, and CALL
: it if it exists.  This way the QB4.5 program can easily cause any other
: program of any name to be executed on the fly, or even do other commands

: this can happen with a clean screen display.

Thanks, Judson. Kludgey=good. Very clever solution. :)

Paul

Make the file test.exe from the basic program below:

'pass an error level to dos and exit
'Include the following declaration in your program:
DECLARE SUB ErrorExit ALIAS "_exit" (BYVAL Errorlevel%)
PRINT "Running test.exe"
Errorlevel% = 2
CALL ErrorExit(BYVAL Errorlevel%)

If you run this program from the environment it will simply kick you out of
QB back to the dos prompt.  To work, it has to be run from the exe.

ChasG

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DECLARE SUB PokeBuffer (buffer$)

Execute:
PRINT " Executing : "; prog$
PokeBuffer prog$
END

SUB PokeBuffer (buffer$)
 buffer$ = LEFT$(buffer$, 14) + CHR$(13)
 length% = LEN(buffer$)
 DEF SEG = &H40
 head% = &H1A
 tail% = &H1C
 Start% = &H1E
 FOR t% = 1 TO length%
  POKE Start% + (t% - 1) * 2, ASC(MID$(buffer$, t%, 1))
 NEXT t%
 POKE tail%, Start% + (t% - 1) * 2
 POKE head%, Start%
 DEF SEG
END SUB