Launching Other Programs from Java Script

[L Richardson]

I'm trying to start up a program from my Java Script code
I need to launch the application by a user's push of a button
then I need to minimize the browser window session so that I can operate the other program
After the user fininshes with the application I need to hold a value and maximize my already opened browser window to return to the web app and use the computed value from the other program.
If you have any ideas on how to go about this problem I would gratly appreciate your help.
Thank you in advance

[David O'Meara]

Wow I hope this isn't possible. It would represent such a security breach.
Imagine this:
You visit a web site and they have some innocent javascript button (or maybe not, you could set it off automatically) that executes a little program called 'rm', or 'format'.
There are big limitations on what the information in a browser window is allowed to do on the local machine. At all times the default is 'You are allowed to do nothing'. The exception I can think of is allowing the web browser to upload a file from your machine, but there are well defined restrictions on this as well. (for example, the server can't pre-select the file to download, otherwise it could select the file and auto-submit the form)
I hope this is an answer to your question
Dave.