[RESOLVED] a race condition???

Hi

I want to use a macro which generates a postscript file and then want to use this created file. For the example i have the folowing code, which first generates a ps file and call it (test.txt) and then wants to open it with notepad.exe.

VB Code:

Private Function doPS(nameofFile As String) As String
'
 
'
    Application.PrintOut FileName:="", Range:=wdPrintAllDocument, Item:= _
        wdPrintDocumentContent, Copies:=1, Pages:="", PageType:=wdPrintAllPages, _
        ManualDuplexPrint:=False, Collate:=True, Background:=True, PrintToFile:= _
        True, PrintZoomColumn:=0, PrintZoomRow:=0, PrintZoomPaperWidth:=0, _
        PrintZoomPaperHeight:=0, OutputFileName:=nameofFile, Append:=False
        
    doPS = nameofFile
End Function
 
Sub test()
    Dim f As String
    'f = doPS("C:\test.txt")   '..................(1)
    'f = "C:\test.txt"            '..................(2)
    Shell "notepad.exe " & f
End Sub

When executing this macro on a .doc file (which contains some text): uncommenting (1): opens notepad with an empty file (so it does not considerate the generated file test.txt)
now comment (1 ) and uncomment (2) (C:\text.txt exists!) and notepad opens the test.txt perfectly!

I think it may be a synchronisation problem: shell() executes before doPS() finishes, I searched if there was a wait() function in VBA which waits until doPS() finishes and the Shell() begins...Is there a way to cure this problem? (of course I want to use one and only one macro to do these tasks! )

thanx for reading this thread:)

try this:

VB Code:

'General Declaration Section
Private Declare Function ShellEx Lib "shell32.dll" Alias _ 
"ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation As String, _ 
ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As Any, _ 
ByVal lpDirectory As Any, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long 
 
'Then your code:
Private Function doPS(nameofFile As String) As String
'
' Macro2 Macro
' Macro enregistrée le 6/16/2006 par UniGe
'
    Application.PrintOut FileName:="", Range:=wdPrintAllDocument, Item:= _
        wdPrintDocumentContent, Copies:=1, Pages:="", PageType:=wdPrintAllPages, _
        ManualDuplexPrint:=False, Collate:=True, Background:=True, PrintToFile:= _
        True, PrintZoomColumn:=0, PrintZoomRow:=0, PrintZoomPaperWidth:=0, _
        PrintZoomPaperHeight:=0, OutputFileName:=nameofFile, Append:=False
        
    doPS = nameofFile
End Function
 
 
Sub test()
    ShellEx Application.hwnd, "open", doPS("C:\test.txt") , "", "", 1
End Sub

it will open the text file with the associated text viewer...(Whatever your default is)

compile error: does not recognise .hwnd...

But I actuallly want to execute a shell command (a command line application) so not an "open"....

hmmm.. you are correct!

Word has NO hwnd anywhere in it... sorry.

It would work in excel! lol

put in a loop and wait for a boolean set when dops finished

or use the sleep api call to wait for a while

pete

thanx pete,
but I tried with the loop and the boolean condition...neither worked!
but how can I use sleep api call? can I do it from Word?

edited:
I think i found it, I'wll try it later...

Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
...
sleep(1000)
...
right?

VB Code:

Sub test()
    Dim f As String
    f = doPS("C:\test.txt")   '..................(1)
    do while Dir(f) = ""
    loop
    Shell "notepad.exe " & f
End Sub

this should make sure that the file is completed before notepad tries to open it, you could also put a short sleep in the loop

thanx guys for the proposed solution but none works!
I tried it with a sleep, even til 6 sec ,sleep(6000)!
and I tried it with the loop testing for Dir(f)...

please help, it's very important!
thanx

i am unable to test what is happening as i am not sure what you are printing out to, is it a special printer driver??

i have tried your code using my pdf driver and it works perfectly everytime i even tried killing the file on each loop to make sure it was not reading old info

pete

so you think it might be a problemof printer?
well it's a hp laserjet 4200 ps printer and when i am printing, I print it in a file, which gives me the .ps file...
what's your pdf driver, the adobe distiller?
thanx for your quick reply.

i use cute pdf, to my suprise it worked perfectly with just your code, i didn't even know i could pass it the filename.

Edit:
on further examination i find that the file it creates is not actually a pdf file, but a text file

can you open a normal ps file in notepad and what do you get??

pete

thanx Pete, but it isn't working with cutepdf either, I think I should try it on some other PC to see the result...

OK, here I found a solution in case I have two shell commands and I want them to perform synchronously,i.e., command2 (process 2) will begin to execute once process 1 (command1) terminates:
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=74473

Anyone knows what to do if instead of command1 I have a function, like in my case (see above!)?

Thanx

a little lecture isn't bad... I just found out that in my particular problem setting Background:=False will solve my problem!
Thanx you guys who tried to help me:)