Shell

Sends a command to the system command interpreter

Syntax
   Declare Function Shell ( ByRef command As Const String ) As Long

Usage
   result = Shell( command )

Parameters
   command
      A string specifying the command to send to the command interpreter.

Return Value
   If the command could not be executed, -1 is returned. Otherwise, the 
   command is executed and its exit code is returned.

Description
   Program execution will be suspended until the command interpreter exits.

Example
   'e.g. for windows:
   Shell "dir c:*.*"

   'e.g. for linux:
   Shell "ls"

Platform Differences
   * Linux requires the command case matches the real name of the command. 
     Windows and DOS are case insensitive. The program being shelled may be 
     case sensitive for its command line parameters. 
   * Path separators in Linux are forward slashes / . Windows uses 
     backward slashes \ but it allows for forward slashes.  DOS uses 
     backward  \ slashes.
   * If an empty command string is passed, DOS will open an interactive 
     command prompt.  On Windows, an error may be returned.

Differences from QB
   * QB allowed SHELL on its own without a "command" argument which caused 
     a default command shell to be started.  Execution in the main program 
     would suspend until exit from the command shell.  The behaviour in FB 
     is platform-dependent.

See also
   * Exec
   * Run

