source: gs2-extensions/open-office/trunk/open-office-java.zip@ 35415

OpenOfficeConverter.pm's BEGIN block running soffice in the background on windows using start, ended up causing GLI to hang (cmdline building didn't hang). It was because of the join() calls on the perl process' stdout/stderr in Safeprocess.InputStreamGobblers() hanging because no eof/eos was received. soffice or other silent external programs launched through perl using system() kept stderr/stdout open even though the external program was supposedly launched in the background. After lots of investigation, Dr Bainbridge found that unlike the system() command in perl/C/C++, Java programs using Runtime.exec() and WScriptHost/CScriptHost script files (like VBScript) can launch external programs fully in the background so that this hanging in GLI doesn't occur. Dr Bainbridge decided we should go with a custom VBScript, created in background-launcher.vbs (committed previously, revision 35414) instead of a Java Program as compiling and setting JAVA_HOME or updating PATH not necessary.