Noah_Thorp

Anyone know how to call system commands (DOS, OS X)? My limitations are: must be cross-platform, cannot use mxj, must be available in standalone application.

This is essentially a hack to do file conversion (ogg, mp3, or aac) by calling an external command (ffmpeg, or other).

way-to-call-system-commands

Have you try with shell command ? What'is your plattform ? Mac ?

Have you try with shell command ? What'is your plattform ? Mac ?
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There are shell objects but AFAIK they only work on OS X. Using mxj seems to be the standard way to exec system commands on Windows, so I wonder why you can't use that? If you can get rid of the no mxj limitation, this should be fairly straightforward...

There's still no crossplateform solution for this. How could it be, anyway ? We don't have the same shell on Windows.

Java is the only workaround for now on Win to get system commands working. Check my DOSHack object :

http://personal.computer.free.fr/new/software.html

By the way i still need more feedback about it to improve the existing code.

Last but bot least, i'll _finally_ come up with a C version pretty soon (around June).

Is the MXJ object entirely self contained in a standalone max/msp app? In other words, is a standalone app dependent on a separate Java installation?

If the JVM is entirely bundled in the standalone app, I can skip accessing the command line and do the file conversion in java. Basically I am writing a (hopefully) very quick recording and file conversion app and would rather not issue shell commands if I don't have to.

I was planning on detecting the platform and issuing appropriate commands. The issue would just be can I get to the command line on Mac and Windows not whether the commands issued would be the same once I got there. Thanks for posting your DOSHack object. Cool! And it brings us back to the mxj external JVM dependency question.

@adam
Is the MXJ object entirely self contained in a standalone max/msp app? In other words, is a standalone app dependent on a separate Java installation?

@f.e.
I was planning on detecting the platform and issuing appropriate commands. The issue would just be can I get to the command line on Mac and Windows not whether the commands issued would be the same once I got there. Thanks for posting your DOSHack object. Cool! And it brings us back to the mxj external JVM dependency question.


If you want to access the terminal on a mac you can use [shell] or [aka.shell] both of which you should be able to find at the link below.

Noah_Thorp wrote on Thu, 23 April 2009 11:18

I haven't worked with standalones but I know Max uses the OS's java. I guess it's whatever Java is on the path but maybe it can be influenced by environment variables or the Max java config file. In any case, I don't think you can include a jvm in a standalone.

It sounds like the best solution would be a version of the shell object for windows but it hasn't been written yet...

In the meantime, maybe you can make java a prereq for your app? Most systems should have java 1.4 installed these days.

Noah_Thorp wrote on Thu, 23 April 2009 11:18Thanks for the responses.

In the meantime, maybe you can make java a prereq for your app? Most systems should have java 1.4 installed these days.


Way to call system commands?