How to run an interactive external script from SKILL?

Hi,

I need to launch an external script from SKILL. The script itself is not under my control - it may be a shell script, Python script, executable, or any other program.

The important part is that the script may pause at arbitrary points and wait for user input from stdin. When this happens, I would like to prompt the user in Virtuoso (for example, using an AppForm), send the entered text back to the running process, and then continue its execution.

I know about system() and ipcBeginProcess(), but I'm not sure whether SKILL supports this kind of interactive communication with a child process.

Is there a supported way to:

• launch an external interactive process from SKILL;
• detect when it is waiting for input;
• send user input back to the process while it is running?

Thanks in advance.