in reply to fork cant support Win32::OLE ?

fork is emulated barely enough for certain use cases. Sharing resources across that emulation, such as Win32::OLE objects, is not implemented and thus does not work. But as you only want to run two programs in parallel anyway, just use system:

system('start "Program 1" perl -w program1.pl') == 0
    or die "Couldn't launch program1: $!/$?";
system('start "Program 2" perl -w program2.pl')
    or die "Couldn't launch program2: $!/$?";

[download]

Alternatively, you can use the following form:

system(1,"perl -w program1.pl")
    or die "Couldn't launch program1: $!/$?";

[download]

to launch a program without waiting for it.

Maybe you want to look at WWW::Mechanize and/or WWW::Mechanize::Firefox, which give you more control over what happens?

UpdateFixed quotes, thanks ikegami!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: fork cant support Win32::OLE ?
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Feb 10, 2010 at 17:23 UTC

    The thing is, OLE and Win32::OLE do support multi-threading, and Win32::IEAutomation is pretty straightforward. I think there's more to this story.

    fyi, the problem I have when I run it is a seg fault.

[reply]
Re^2: fork cant support Win32::OLE ?
by xiaoyafeng (Deacon) on Feb 10, 2010 at 17:07 UTC
    Thanks for your reply.
    WWW::Mechanize is also the one of my favorite modules. but the web site I want to crawl include javascript heavily. Considering the platform, Win32::IEAutomation should be the best, I think.


    I am trying to improve my English skills, if you see a mistake please feel free to reply or /msg me a correction

[reply]
Re^2: fork cant support Win32::OLE ?
by xiaoyafeng (Deacon) on Feb 10, 2010 at 17:25 UTC
    Can I think threads is only/stable way to implement multi-processes snippet in Windows? and I can use threads to connect my snippet above even pass some info between them?


    I am trying to improve my English skills, if you see a mistake please feel free to reply or /msg me a correction

[reply]

      Yes, but again, sharing (Win32::OLE) resources across threads is not easy. But sharing information between threads is very easy if you use Thread::Queue to send information back and forth, for example. The best is to use OLE objects only in one thread. Also read the section on Win32::OLE->Initialize() and ->SpinMessageLoop documentation.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      Can I think threads is only/stable way to implement multi-processes snippet in Windows?

      No, it's not the only one. In fact, it's not even one of them. Threads don't create processes.

      Neither does fork in Windows. It creates threads to emulate unix's fork.

      I can use threads to connect my snippet above even pass some info between them?

      Yes, through shared variables, pipes, sockets, files, etc. Thread::Queue is very useful if you're making worker threads.

      Considering the platform,

      Considering the platform, don't use fork. Windows doesn't support fork, so it's emulated. If you want to created threads, use threads instead. 

      use warnings;
use strict;

use threads;

use Win32::IEAutomation;
use Win32::IEAutomation::WinClicker;

async {
    my $clicker = Win32::IEAutomation::WinClicker->new();
    # ...
};

async {
    my $ie = Win32::IEAutomation->new( visible => 1, maximize => 1);
    # ...
};

$_->join() for threads->list();

      [download]

      Note that the above still suffers from your original problem. It's apparently related to threads, not just the fork emulation. (No surprise there.)

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom