Thanks again for all the previous help I received here! Now that I've got a working script, I didn't realize just *how* fast J is: loading, sorting, deduping, and comparing two files with around 200,000 library record numbers each, and then writing out a third file of another 80,000 records altogether took only a few seconds! Wow!!
Anyway, because I need to move data between multiple applications, I currently use another scripting language (MS VBScript) to send the various commands (in my script that I noted above) sequentially to a J server. (I would prefer to have used AutoIt as my "master" scripting language, which is more powerful than VBScript, but AutoIt currently seems to have an issue with receiving "variant"-type data back from an OLE server, such as a J server, so I had to resort to VBScript instead.) I thought a useful next step in the process would be to invoke J with a particular script (and perhaps arguments, too), so that my "master" scripting language(s) could have merely a single "shell"- like command rather than a series of commands that simulate manually typing a script into J. Similar to what I've noted in other previous messages, as a beginner I found it extremely difficult to find information along this line. The "Command Line Parameters" chapter in the "Overview" section of the online "User Manual" (Usr) seemed to have what I was looking--with an emphasis on "seemed" because I still can't get anything to work, hence my question. The chapter gave 4 groups of patterns for invoking J in various circumstances. The first pattern group seemed to be the one I wanted (or was I wrong??)--here's the final pattern in that group: J FN ARGS [J=servername, FN=scriptname, ARGS=0 or more arguments] Unfortunately, *NO* practical examples were given for any of the patterns in any of the groups, except the last (which I'll ask about later on). So, lacking any examples, I tried all of the following variations (sending the scriptname and the names of the two files for the script to handle) and possibly more variations that I've since forgotten. I also tried *not* using any arguments, just to see if I could get even that much to work. (1) Windows shortcut target: "c:\Program Files\j\j.exe c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs c:\iii1.txt c:\iii2.txt" "c:\Program Files\j\j.exe c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs 'c:\iii1.txt' 'c:\iii2.txt'" "c:\Program Files\j\j.exe 'c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs' 'c:\iii1.txt' 'c:\iii2.txt'" "c:\Program Files\j\j.exe c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs" "c:\Program Files\j\j.exe 'c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs'" (2) DOS command line: c:\Progra~1\j\j.exe c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs c:\iii1.txt c:\iii2.txt c:\Progra~1\j\j.exe c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs 'c:\iii1.txt' 'c:\iii2.txt' c:\Progra~1\j\j.exe 'c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs' 'c:\iii1.txt' 'c:\iii2.txt' c:\Progra~1\j\j.exe c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs c:\Progra~1\j\j.exe 'c:\Program Files\j\temp\myscript.ijs' (I also tried using double quotes instead of single quotes in the DOS commands.) In all cases, Windows/DOS complained and/or failed. (My memory seems to indicate that the second last Windows and DOS commands actually started J, but then J just sat there waiting for manually-typed commands.) As I said, I tried every variation I could think of for what the indicated pattern in the User Manual might have meant, but to no avail. Just before writing this message, I looked again at the User Manual to verify the pattern I tried to follow above, and I noted that the fourth pattern *might* also be close to what I'm looking for, but I have questions about it: The Manual states: J -js ARGS - creates verb ARGVERB_z_ from ARGS and runs it and has the examples: jconsole.exe -js a=.23 b=.3 "echo a*b" jconsole.exe -js a=.23 b=.3 "echo a*b" exit Instead of ARGS being a series of J commands, can it be the name of a script to invoke or not? I have a hunch that the answer is "not". So my question is, how in the world can I invoke the running of a script (.ijs file), preferably with arguments that the script could utilize internally? In other words, the technique should start up a J server and "force" a script to run (preferably with the possibility of arguments to pass to the script). This invocation should be able to be done as a Windows shortcut (via the "target" command line) or as an equivalent "shell"-like command (like a DOS command) in some other scripting language. I hope someone can indicate how to do this. Thanks! Harvey ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
