Change Process.start to return a future that completes with a

runtime/bin/process.dart

 // Copyright (c) 2012, the Dart project authors.  Please see the AUTHORS file
 // for details. All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
 // BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
 /** Exit the Dart VM process with the given [status] code. */
 void exit(int status) {
   if (status is !int) {
     throw new ArgumentError("int status expected");
   }
   _exit(status);
 }
 
 /**
  * [Process] is used to start new processes using the static
  * [start] and [run] methods.
  */
 class Process {
   /**
    * Starts a process running the [executable] with the specified
-   * [arguments]. Returns a [Process] instance that can be used to
-   * interact with the process.
+   * [arguments]. Returns a [:Future<Process>:] that completes with a
+   * Process instance when the process has been successfully
+   * started. That [Process] object can be used to interact with the
+   * process. If the process cannot be started the returned [Future]
+   * completes with an exception.
    *
    * An optional [ProcessOptions] object can be passed to specify
    * options other than the executable and the arguments.
-   *
-   * When the process has been successfully started [onStart] is
-   * called on the returned Process object. If the process fails to
-   * start [onError] is called on the returned Process object.
-   *
-   * No data can be written to the process stdin and the process
-   * cannot be closed nor killed before [onStart] has been invoked.
    */
-  static Process start(String executable,
-                       List<String> arguments,
-                       [ProcessOptions options]) {
-    return new _Process.start(executable, arguments, options);
+  static Future<Process> start(String executable,
+                               List<String> arguments,
+                               [ProcessOptions options]) {
+    return _Process.start(executable, arguments, options);
   }
 
   /**
    * Starts a process and runs it non-interactively to completion. The
    * process run is [executable] with the specified [arguments].
    *
    * An optional [ProcessOptions] object can be passed to specify
    * options other than the executable and the arguments.
    *
    * Returns a [:Future<ProcessResult>:] that completes with the
@@ skipping 24 matching lines @@
 
   /**
    * Returns an output stream to the process stdin.
    *
    * Throws an [UnsupportedOperationException] if the process is
    * non-interactive.
    */
   abstract OutputStream get stdin;
 
   /**
-   * Set the start handler which gets invoked when the process is
-   * successfully started.
-   */
-  abstract void set onStart(void callback());
-
-  /**
    * Sets an exit handler which gets invoked when the process
    * terminates.
    *
    * Throws an [UnsupportedOperationException] if the process is
    * non-interactive.
    */
   abstract void set onExit(void callback(int exitCode));

[Søren Gjesse, 2012/10/12 07:47:22]

Shouldn't this return a future (with the exit code) as well?

[Mads Ager (google), 2012/10/12 08:44:46]

That could make sense, yes. Let's experiment with that as a separate change?
This is getting big already.

 
   /**
    * Set an error handler which gets invoked if an operation on the process
    * fails.
    */
   abstract void set onError(void callback(e));
 
   /**
    * On Windows, [kill] kills the process, ignoring the [signal]
    * flag. On Posix systems, [kill] sends [signal] to the
@@ skipping 131 matching lines @@
   /**
    * Contains the system message for the process exception if any.
    */
   final String message;
 
   /**
    * Contains the OS error code for the process exception if any.
    */
   final int errorCode;
 }