>these .txt files are being used to drive a CNC process for some machinery, the communication between c++ & VFP is needed to only update a flag is a VFP table. I'll look into the VFP APIs.

I think the other option of having VFP wait for the C++ program to finish (e.g. using edward suggestion)
and within the timer that holds VFP call an additional C++ function that will report the finished tasks should work as well

Arnon