Perhaps, I should better explain what I'm trying to do.

> How many other windows applications can you count that don't get the focus
when
> they start ? I can't think of any, the exceptions being services or other
non-
> user-oriented things such as tray applets.

You're right, most applications when they start do get focus, but in my case
I am using POV-Ray like a service.  I'm building a framework for
distributing renders to my home computers from a remote computer.  The
problem I run into is annoying users that may or may not be on those
computers when the remote render starts, which I plan on being at a very low
priority.

For the most part all of this works right now.  I'm still working on
cleaning it up, but I can submit any number of renders, and have the remote
machine render them one at a time.

Here's the problem I'm facing and the choices I have.

1) If I start a single instance of POV-Ray on startup using ABX's "start"
method, this being my preferred way, then the splash screen shows, and POV
runs minimized, which is great.  If however I then invoke POV again with a
/RENDER it maximizes and comes to the front, thus annoying whoever is on
that remote computer, each and everytime a /RENDER is submitted.

2) I can invoke POV seperately for each render using /RENDER and /EXIT still
using the "start" method, but the splash screen shows each and every time,
which is as annoying as the coming to the front problem.  I have no desire
to supress the splash screen for the very reasons it's there, so...

What I'd really like is for the currently running instance of POV to remain
minimized when a subsequent /RENDER is sent to it, thus behaving like a
background task.  But on startup it would still show it's splash screen,
thus the user would know it was there.

> Why are you running a separate instance of the program for each frame of
the
> animation ?

I have a program that is generating POV SDL files, some of which are frames
of an animation.  Then I spawn the remote renders on all these files.
Particle systems in general have to write a new SDL file for each frame, and
can't use POV's internal clock animation.

Andrew

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