How tell if shelled app is finished

[Goyette]

I shell a .bat file which runs a DOS app. The DOS app's output is redirected to a file. I need to read that file when the DOS app is finished.

I thought that I could tell when the DOS app finished with:

DO WHILE Dir(redirectedfile) = ""
Loop

assuming that Dir would return an empty string until the redirectedfile is completed and closed by DOS. However, it apparently "finds" the file as soon as the DOS app starts.

How can I determine that the DOS app is done?

TIA,

Don Goyette

Private Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal dwDesiredAccess As
Long, ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetExitCodeProcess Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As
Long, lpExitCode As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
Const STILL_ACTIVE = &H103
Const PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION = &H400

'Code:
Sub Shell32Bit(ByVal JobToDo As String)

         Dim hProcess As Long
         Dim RetVal As Long
         'The next line launches JobToDo as icon,

         'captures process ID
         hProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION, False, Shell(JobToDo,1))

         Do

             'Get the status of the process
             GetExitCodeProcess hProcess, RetVal

             'Sleep command recommended as well as DoEvents
             DoEvents: Sleep 100

         'Loop while the process is active
         Loop While RetVal = STILL_ACTIVE


End Sub

I was searching my computer for something on this and this code came up. I am not exactly sure how to use it, but it says that it Monitors a DOS Window.