>that sounds like a solution to me, but how do I message the controlling process?
Since you probably have more expirience in COM, storing a pointer to the controlling programs goApp and having there a callback method should be easiest to realize. Simple bridge across process borders.

In the download section are a few files promising callback functionality - AFAIR at least a .fll and another COM based soulution. "Promising" because *I* haven't tested them, not meant as "lacking in functionality". AFAIR there are also some message handlers, but I don't know if they work for vfp6Sp5.

Another option often overlooked is the use of DDE. While this is more work to set up, it has the benefit of being a documented way to have another process "work" asynchronously *and*/*or* call a defined callback function in the controlling program on finishing. These mechanisms are quite flexible, and can be used for your use case as well. Hint: search for FPW or vfp3 Help files for more info.

>can you point me in a direction code wise? otherwise I'm going to go for the shared table approach.

This is actually a nice and easy way to decouple all processes for the "cost" of table access latency. Since this will be a "semaphore" way to use/synch, be sure to always use explicit rowlocking when accessing either from the controlling or the worker process. Been there as well <g>...

regards

thomas