Re: Automating Windows from cygwin

[James Ganong <jeg at thunnus>]

I asked if there is a way to automate windows applications
from cygwin.   Here is my summary:

I found that rfbproxy and rfbplaymacro will probably work on cygwin.
They definitely do work from linux to control a windows machine.
http://cyberelk.net/tim/rfbproxy/
These allow you to record and play mouse macros through vnc.
This way of doing is very shallow: if a window moves
or a dialog box pops up my mouse macros will break because they
just hammer away blindly moving the mouse to the same XY location and clicking.
But this is probably adequate in my situation because it is a very
controlled environment and I only need to run a few very simple
Windows Apps.

"Samuel" <samuel@socal.rr.com> for suggested
that I use Windows Hooks, to avoid the problems
with mouse macros, and I found that there is an O'Reilly book about doing this:
Subclassing and Hooking with Visual Basic by Stephen Teilhet.
I considered doing it this way, but I don't have Visual Basic,
and mouse macros are good enough for my current needs.

-------

(Message inbox:2033)

Date:    Wed, 31 Jul 2002 13:36:40 PDT
To:      cygwin@cygwin.com
cc:      jganong@Stanford.EDU
From:    James Ganong <jeg@thunnus.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Automating Windows from cygwin

Return-Path: jeg@thunnus.Stanford.EDU
Delivery-Date: Wed Jul 31 20:36:43 2002
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Delivered-To: jeg@thunnus.Stanford.EDU
reply-to: jganong@Stanford.EDU


I have some scientific instruments that will only talk to 
a proprietary Windows app, and some Linux programs that 
analyze the data. 
I would really like to automate the process of running the Windows
program so that the Linux programs could talk to cygwin over the net
and get the data.  
The problem is that the windows app was written long ago,
and source is not available.  So I am wondering if there
is a way to run an arbitrary windows application and do something
like mouse macros from cygwin.

Does anybody know of a way to do mouse macros from cygwin, or a way
to invoke menu items from a arbitrary windows app from cygwin, or a better way 
to approach this?  I have the impression that some people do mouse macros
via vnc.  Is there some O'Reilly book that I should have read?

Thanks!

- - --James Ganong



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