World: r3wp

Thanks for your offer, but Yeksoon has kindly set up a temporary 
website for us, and will set up a more permanent one after some server 
upgrading.

Just on those issues I mentioned maybe someone here knows:


Issue 1 - CreateObject won't start Photoshop but does work with Microsoft 
products like Access, Excel, Word...

>> obj_application: createObject "Photoshop.Application"
--------------------------------------------------
ERROR:
--------------------------------------------------
Member:   Photoshop.Application
Function:     CreateObject
Error In:     CreateObjectEx
Error:    %1 is not a valid Win32 application.
Code:     800700c1
Source:   Application
CODE: -2147024703
--------------------------------------------------


If I start PS by hand or use Call from REBOL then there is no problem. 
It is starting the process which is the issue.

Issue 2 - Photoshop method PrintOut only works the first time, subsequent 
calls are silently ignored.


I had a loop so my workaround was to Quit photoshop programmatically, 
then restart it with Call - bit of a sledgehammer but I generated 
my cards :)

Not a big issue for me now, but would be good to solve these for 
next time.

P.s both of these I tried at console and I think I did try a wait 
at the time.

Yes, CreateObject assumes the application is already running. In 
the case of MS office apps, they are probably already running in 
the background somehow, or the interface supports those apps.

Ok thanks for that. Is there something I can use to start the application 
apart from REBOL's Call command?

On issue 2, I've done some more testing this time with VB script 
and same result - just one print.  However, trying a different printer 
- multiple prints work using VB script and REBOL/comlib. So it may 
be the printer driver that is causing me problems.

I don't know, I haven't discovered this yet. I will of course put 
it into a demo when / if  I do discover a way to start the app.

Any updates on the comlib ?

I forked and did a lot of cleaning and rebolifying, but I think Benjamin 
must be real busy or on holiday, because I've been waiting for his 
email for a while. Also, the more I worked on it, the more I wanted 
to check the basis of code. Maybe there is better library than disphelper 
to base on ? I don't know because I didn't check yet. Anyway, I will 
most l likely continue with my fork as is.

Not going to do anything on that for a few days, I think.

Was there a solution to Brett's problem ?

no news there.

Not COM related, but I had similar problems with programmtic control 
of Acrobat.

.

Yes Brett - CreateProcess

First release of  COMLib-anton    (Benjamin Maggi's COMLib, reengineered)
http://home.wilddsl.net.au/anton/rebol/os/windows/COMLib/

What changes ?

To see some changes, click on Browse Files, then docs/convert-ben-to-anton.txt

Anton, how stable is your fork?

is it more stable than Benjamin's ? Although I can't say I've had 
any problems with his.

I am confident in it. That is why I have published. I worked really 
hard for the last couple of weeks. I feel the new API is not likely 
to change very much from here.

I have removed the use of callbacks, so there is no chance for indeterminate 
behaviour due to the asynchronous operation of callbacks. Exceptions 
are now thrown as rebol errors, so you can use standard rebol error 
checking.

I have scrutinized the API and cleaned it up, removing seemingly 
arbitrary divergences from DispHelper function names.

Ok.  I'll have to test it in the weekend.

Also, I am here to support it fully.

COMlib requires a /Pro license, right?

Yes, to access external library.

ok

(maybe it would be worth mentioning to avoid too much excitement?) 
:-)

why? will not RT release library interface as any other normal language, 
for free? ;-)

I was suspecting it could be working over TCP/IP like Geomol's OpenGL 
library

but that would be a big security hole :-)

I will be checking out RebCall at some time to see if it can be used.
http://mortimer.devcave.net/projects/rebcall

interesting one

who is mortimer.systems? :-)

On his site, there is RebFcgi that can be interesting too. But only 
for Windows !

Any skilled Linux/C coder to addapt it for a Linux Apache Module 
???

just ask DocKimbel to release his xy years old version. He did not 
do that, because RT asked him not to do so. IMO fastcgi is not feature 
which would ruin RT sales. Except secure mode there is very little 
value in the rest of Command - outdated ...

for continous value in Command, you'd need something bigger. a different 
business strategy comes to mind.

I think it's a little silly having to ask developers not to develop 
something even if it's fairly possible to do.

I think and I hope, that R3 design will be correct this time! No 
more integrated third party stuff, which does NOT belong to the kernel! 
The situation with fast-cgi was hilarious. It was never fixed under 
Windows, ot my knowledge ...

I prefer plug-in system, so that if someone develops something interesting, 
I can buy it! RT or third party ...

Just dunno, if security (https) can be done that way, support for 
certificates etc., it is belongs to kernel ...

I just found a nice way to simplify the usage, so the demos are going 
to get a little bit shorter.

I've added about ten newly converted demos to the site. Please send 
me any scripts you would like converted. I've done quite a few now 
so it will be easy. Then you can see the differences for yourself 
more easily, too. Graham, I'm thinking of your Skype script.

Renamed this group from "COM Supporting" -> "Windows/COM Support"

Did you want me to have a go at updating the SkyPe script ?

I just thought of it as one of the scripts that have already been 
created. Send me any scripts you wish converted.

Now is a good time because it's fresh in my mind.