Shelling to DOS program requiring keyboard inputs

[jfglass]

I am a real amateur on VBA for excel.

What I am doing is: I have put together an "Excel front end"
for an
older DOS application. My VBA script builds the input file
for the
app. Then I want to do something like:

Shell "app_name < input_name"

I've done this before (for another application) and it
worked. Only
this time, the app was written to require two input file
names on
separate lines of input. It's an old Fortran app, which
wants the
user to type two file names (input and output).

The strange thing is, that if I type the line above
(app_name <
input_name) in a Dos window (I'm running XT) it works. If
Excel
VBA tries to shell out to do it, it simply returns and does
not
execute the program!

The "input_name" file contains two lines, namely the file
name of
the input file and the file name of the output file, on
different lines of
text.

Any suggestions?

Thanks--

[Mark O'Brien]

My suggestion for this is to write a *.bat file and execute it, here's some crappy code (I wrote it 3 years ago) that will write a batch (*.bat) file):

Open BatchFile For Output As #1

Print #1, sSelect

Print #1, ; "ex " & Process.ProcessName

'Print #1, ; "1"

Print #1, ; "End"



Close #1

Notes:

"sSelect" is a string variable that is analogous to your Input file.

"BatchFile" is a string Variable that contains the complete path of a Batch file to write. e.g. "C:TempMyBatchFile.bat"

"Process.ProcessName" is a string that in this case was analogous to your Output file (because I'm telling the program to "ex" the input file)

I eventually ran the file using Shell like this (WinNT):

Shell "cmd /C FartyFartFart < " & BatchFile

"FartyFartFart" was the DOS name of the executable, then I told it to run the batch file (BatchFile).

Any questions, just repost. (I've changed some names to protect the innocent, actually me because I did this for a client)

[jfglass]

Thanks--I will try it Monday.