R help - Jun 2003 - RDCOM Client: processes not terminating

Hello

I am using Duncan Lang's RDCOM Client package (available on
omegahat.org) under R 1.7.0 and Windows XP Pro. 

Is this the right forum for questions about this package? In case it is,
here is my question: 

Instances of COM objects do not seem to terminate as expected, but leave
residual processes running. For example, if I try the simple example:

E <- COMCreate("Excel.Application")
E[["Visible"]] <- TRUE
E$Quit()

An Excel application is created and pops up visibly. The E$Quit()
command appears to close the application down as expected, but an EXCEL
process is still left running in the background (as indicated by e.g.
the Windows Task Manager).

Is there a way to cleanly exit the COM instance and shut down the
associated process? 

Thanks,

David

Hi Duncan

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, the Excel process still persists
indefinitely even after removing the handle E and issuing the gc()
command -- even after closing R, too. For the moment, I have found a way
round this by issuing a  shell command to "kill" the process.

Cheers,

David

-----Original Message-----
From: Duncan Temple Lang [mailto:duncan at research.bell-labs.com] 
Sent: 13 June 2003 20:01
To: David Khabie-Zeitoune
Subject: Re: [R] RDCOM Client: processes not terminating



Hi David.

 There may well be an extra reference in R to the Excel application that
keeps it hanging around.  Can you try the following and let me know 
if you still see the same problem:

 1) make certain there are not Excel processes running

 2) Create an Excel from R and quit

   E <- COMCreate("Excel.Application")
   E[["Visible"]] <- TRUE
   E$Quit()

 3)  rm(E)
 
 4) gc()

 5) wait a 30 seconds or so

 6) check if the Excel instance is still running.



Thanks.

 D.

David Khabie-Zeitoune wrote:
> Hello
> 
> I am using Duncan Lang's RDCOM Client package (available on
> omegahat.org) under R 1.7.0 and Windows XP Pro.
> 
> Is this the right forum for questions about this package? In case it 
> is, here is my question:
> 
> Instances of COM objects do not seem to terminate as expected, but 
> leave residual processes running. For example, if I try the simple 
> example:
> 
> E <- COMCreate("Excel.Application")
> E[["Visible"]] <- TRUE
> E$Quit()
> 
> An Excel application is created and pops up visibly. The E$Quit() 
> command appears to close the application down as expected, but an 
> EXCEL process is still left running in the background (as indicated by
> e.g. the Windows Task Manager).
> 
> Is there a way to cleanly exit the COM instance and shut down the 
> associated process?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> David
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list 
> https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
-- 
_______________________________________________________________

Duncan Temple Lang                duncan at research.bell-labs.com
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies    office: (908)582-3217
700 Mountain Avenue, Room 2C-259  fax:    (908)582-3340
Murray Hill, NJ  07974-2070       
         http://cm.bell-labs.com/stat/duncan