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I really have a hard time figuring out the title for this, but basically There is independent map application(similar to gmaps), each time I open it reads the coordinates from text file and shows the labels on map. You can add the labels to the map yourself and it saves them to the coordinate file after you close the application.

Question: is there a way I can make it so that my application puts the labels on the map using some kind of memory writing? I can use the coordinate file for that application and write the coordinates there, but I want the labels show up without re-opening the application.

CatWithGlasses
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  • Sorry, don't understand yet. Please elaborate – nl-x Jun 17 '13 at 08:24
  • Sounds like you want some form of IPC however both source and target would need to support it. – Lloyd Jun 17 '13 at 08:26
  • If all you want to do is show labels without re-opening, can you not just refresh you controls to reload their children controls? How are you storing the coords? – Kestami Jun 17 '13 at 08:27
  • @Shane.C the map app is not mine nor i have a source code for it, I need to figure it out how to add the coordinates to that application from my application programmatically without clicking to add the label. – CatWithGlasses Jun 17 '13 at 08:34
  • @EverWondeR, most likeli it will not be worth it. It is probably much more easier to reverse-enginer the map program to allow rudimentary IPC for reloading the text file that to alter its memory on the fly. What operating system are you using? – Panu Jun 17 '13 at 08:45
  • Windows 7 Ultimate x64 – CatWithGlasses Jun 17 '13 at 08:49
  • @EverWondeR, I don't know much about windows, but I think you at least you need superuser privileges to access other process memory. There is another question about writing to memory in windows (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4623029/how-can-i-write-on-another-process-memory). – Panu Jun 17 '13 at 11:23
  • @Panu ok i'll look into that – CatWithGlasses Jun 17 '13 at 11:28

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In general this is not possible because writing to the memory area reserved of other application is prohibited by operating system and by processor architechture. If you have unprivileged access to memory this would be possible, but unpractical in reality.

You need some inter-process communication, but this requires support from both applications.

Panu
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  • "..but this requires support from both applications." thats the problem.. and I'm trying to find other ways, hacky or not.. – CatWithGlasses Jun 17 '13 at 08:35