you can execute a perl program from a perl program using backticks or system, or you can use the eval command to interpolate perl code at runtime, though this is somewhat different than executing a perl program in general, because whatever you eval really becomes part of your program, not an entity unto itself... you could also use exec if you want to leave your current script and just start running the new one. There is always more than one way to do it.

As for the xemacs call... maybe your DISPLAY or PATH environment variables are not set right? It should work alright. Look at the exit value, the way to do that is described in system

                - Ant