
Before talking about "inter-process communication", we should
first see how one process (i.e., a running program) can create
another process. The first process will be called the parent
process, and the second process, the one created by the first
process, will be called the child process. Our goal will be
for the two processes, the parent and its child, to communicate
with each other.


In the sub-folders there are programs RunProgram.java and
run-program.c. Compile and run these programs. Notice that they
show how a C or Java program can start up other programs. Notice
that some of these programs are given command line parameters when
they are started. For example, the Notepad.exe editor is started
and it is told to open a file. Also, the Explorer.exe program is
told to open the folder "C:\Windows\System32". This demonstrates
a simple example of a parent process starting up child processes
and communicating to the child processes a bit of (inter-process)
information.


To see the parent/child relationships created by the examples in
these folders, run either the ProcessExplorer.exe or ProcessHacker.exe
programs (for ProcessExplorer.exe, be sure to select the menu item
"View -> Show Process Tree").