57 Processes

In the terminology of operating systems, a process is a space in which a program can execute. SXEmacs runs in a process. SXEmacs Lisp programs can invoke other programs in processes of their own. These are called subprocesses or child processes of the SXEmacs process, which is their parent process.

A subprocess of SXEmacs may be synchronous or asynchronous, depending on how it is created. When you create a synchronous subprocess, the Lisp program waits for the subprocess to terminate before continuing execution. When you create an asynchronous subprocess, it can run in parallel with the Lisp program. This kind of subprocess is represented within SXEmacs by a Lisp object which is also called a “process”. Lisp programs can use this object to communicate with the subprocess or to control it. For example, you can send signals, obtain status information, receive output from the process, or send input to it.

Function: processp object

This function returns t if object is a process, nil otherwise.