This assumes you have a good understanding of what a process is and how to identify a process you'd like to manipulate . If you don’t, take a look at tip proc005 - Understanding Processes before continuing.

The Macintosh portion of this code is implemented in AppleScript, and the Windows portion is implemented using the PrcView* command line utility, and assumes that you have put the pv.exe application in the same directory as your standalone (i.e. the default "directory").

function Activate pProcessName
  switch (the platform)
  case "MacOS"
    put "tell application" && q("Finder") && cr & \
      "set the frontmost of application process" && q(pProcessName) && "to true" & cr & \
      "return (the result)" & cr & \
      "end tell" into tScript
    do tScript as AppleScript
    if the result is "execution error" then return "Process not found."
    break
  case "Win32"
    set the hideConsoleWindows to true
    put shell("pv -q") into tProcList
    if matchText(cr&tProcList&cr,"\n" & pProcessName & tab) is false then
      return "Process not found."
    else
      get shell("pv -a " & pProcessName)
    end if
    break
  end switch
end Activate

function q what
  return quote & what & quote
end q

* PrcView is a command line utility developed by Igor Nys, and can be downloaded at http://www.prcview.com/. PrcView is free for personal use or to be distributed with freeware applications; for shareware or commercial use, please contact Igor. Licensing costs are very reasonable, and he is very willing to work with you to make it worth your while to use his application.

Posted 12/26/02 by Ken Ray