Yes, shell("start") works. R does not wait for the command prompt to be closed, but this can be worked around by running shell("start /WAIT") so it looks like this should give a solution our guy's can use.
Many thanks, Ralph --- On Fri, 11/3/11, Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendi...@gmail.com> wrote: From: Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendi...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [R] system(..., invisible=FALSE, show.output.on.console=FALSE) in Windows 7 To: "Ralph Olsson" <ralphols...@btinternet.com> Cc: r-help@r-project.org Date: Friday, 11 March, 2011, 14:58 On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Ralph Olsson <ralphols...@btinternet.com> wrote: > Hello, > > I work for a company in which a number of employees use R. Many of them like > to run executables via the system function in such a way that the output of > that executable is displayed in a separate window. To give an example of the > behavior they require, the following command can be run in R GUI: > > system("cmd",invisible=FALSE,show.output.on.console=FALSE) > > The result is that a command prompt opens up and can be used interactively > until it is closed. We have never had a problem with this command running R > on Windows XP machines. > > Recently a number of us have switched to PCs running Windows 7. Under this > operating system the above command often, if not always, fails to open a > window. Some people can successfully run the command in one R session but > then fail to get a window if a second R session is started. Others cannot get > a window to open at all. We've tested the command with R 2.12.1, 2.12.1 > patched, 2.12.2 and 2.12.2 patched (all in both 32 and 64 bit). All of these > exhibit the same problem. > > I raised the issue as a bug > (https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=14516), but this was > promptly closed as being "not reproducible". Since we are having issues > running the above command on all of our windows 7 PCs but none of our windows > XP PCs, and since whoever closed the bug clearly had no issues running the > command on his or her Windows 7 PC, I'm not really sure what to do next in > terms of trying to resolve the problem. > > Can anyone shed any light on this issue? Is anyone able to reproduce it (only > takes 30 seconds, just copy the above line into RGui on Windows 7 and confirm > whether a command prompt opens; then, with the first session still open, try > the same in a second RGui window)? > > Any help or feedback would be appreciated, > Does this work for you? shell("start") -- Statistics & Software Consulting GKX Group, GKX Associates Inc. tel: 1-877-GKX-GROUP email: ggrothendieck at gmail.com [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.