Path: news.daimi.aau.dk!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!bofh.vszbr.cz!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!204.71.1.51!spamkiller.internetmci.com!pull-feed.internetmci.com!not-for-mail
From: mimichae@westmont.edu (Michael Michaels)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.beta
Subject: Running a system shell command in BETA
Message-ID: <slrn69pntf.or.mimichae@bigBro.catch22.org>
X-Newsreader: slrn (0.9.4.3 UNIX)
Lines: 17
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:22:12 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: pulsar.westmont.edu
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:22:12 EST
Xref: news.daimi.aau.dk comp.lang.beta:11419

I recently downloaded the free Personal Edition of the Mjolner BETA
system from: 

<http://www.mjolner.dk>

I have been very impressed by it and by the BETA language that it
supports.  Programming in BETA is a true pleasure.

I do have one question, however, which came up while I was translating a
script written in Python.  The script reformats the output from the 'du'
command (I'm using Linux).  How do you run a system shell command and
capture the output in BETA?  I took a look at the 'startUnixProcess'
pattern in the 'unixinterface' library, but have yet to understand how
to use it.  Am I on the right track?  

In Python, this is done using the following imperative:

   result = os.popen("du", "r").read()   #capture du's output into 'result'
	
Does anyone know how this would be done in BETA?

Sincerely,

Michael S. Michaels