[Python-Dev] FW: Fixing os.popen on Win32 => is the win32pipe stuff going to be adopted?

[Tim Peters]

I had another take on all this, which I'll now share <wink> since nobody
seems inclined to fold in the Win32 popen:  perhaps os.popen should not be
supported at all under Windows!

The current function is a mystery wrapped in an enigma -- sometimes it
works, sometimes it doesn't, and I've never been able to outguess which one
will obtain (there's more to it than just whether a console window is
attached).  If it's not reliable (it's not), and we can't document the
conditions under which it can be used safely (I can't), Python shouldn't
expose it.

Failing that, the os.popen docs should caution it's "use at your own risk"
under Windows, and that this is directly inherited from MS's popen
implementation.