Shell Command Window

 Yes as long as the program supports command line arguments

axlRunBatchDBProgram("pkzip" "pkzip <args>" ?noUnload t ?silent t)

The noUnload arg is required since you don't want to save the database. The silent will suppress status messages.

 On Windows, not all programs are in the PATH variable. If the program won't run from the DOS window then you must use the full path to the program when launching it from axlRun. If the directory path contains spaces you need to quote it as follows:

    "\"C:/Program Files/progdir/prog.exe\" <prog argments>"

       The two backslash quote sequences ( \") inserts two quote characters into the string. I also use UNIX style directory forward slashes (/) instead of DOS  backslashes (\) so I don't need to escape the backslash. If you wanted all DOS then you would need

    "\"C:\\Program Files\\progdir\\prog.exe\" <prog argments>"

Remember in Skill (or C/C++ for that matter) the backslash character (\) escapes the next character. 

 <prog arguments> - this is the arguments the program expects.

For expert users you can call upon the allegro shell spawning commands. For example,

   axlShell("run notepad")

       - launches notepad and waits for it to finish

   axlShell("run -b notepad")

       - launches notepad and immediately returns control to allegro

The run command also supports a -s option which tells it you want to run  a .bat file. This option is ignored on UNIX.

 Yes as long as the program supports command line arguments

axlRunBatchDBProgram("pkzip" "pkzip <args>" ?noUnload t ?silent t)

The noUnload arg is required since you don't want to save the database. The silent will suppress status messages.

 On Windows, not all programs are in the PATH variable. If the program won't run from the DOS window then you must use the full path to the program when launching it from axlRun. If the directory path contains spaces you need to quote it as follows:

    "\"C:/Program Files/progdir/prog.exe\" <prog argments>"

       The two backslash quote sequences ( \") inserts two quote characters into the string. I also use UNIX style directory forward slashes (/) instead of DOS  backslashes (\) so I don't need to escape the backslash. If you wanted all DOS then you would need

    "\"C:\\Program Files\\progdir\\prog.exe\" <prog argments>"

Remember in Skill (or C/C++ for that matter) the backslash character (\) escapes the next character. 

 <prog arguments> - this is the arguments the program expects.

For expert users you can call upon the allegro shell spawning commands. For example,

   axlShell("run notepad")

       - launches notepad and waits for it to finish

   axlShell("run -b notepad")

       - launches notepad and immediately returns control to allegro

The run command also supports a -s option which tells it you want to run  a .bat file. This option is ignored on UNIX.