>I thought I was just going to have to "run" the programs I need to interface with, so I gave up on DDE when I found out how complicated it was. Turns out what I need to run isn't an executable, though.
>
>I need my VFP program to activate MapInfo and run a MapBasic program from there. Then I need it to return to my VFP program when it's done.
>
>Does anybody have a clue how I would go about doing this?
>
>Thanks,

I have never used MapInfo, but when I looked at the MapBasic documentation mentioned on the website, it said that OLE Automation was supported, as well as DDE. I didn't go digging any deeper, but documentation for its object model has to be somewhere. Whether MapInfo actually works as an OLE server FROM VFP might be another matter.