Environmental Variables

[Diez B. Roggisch]

> was what I got. I checked the at DOS prompt (cmd) for PYTHONSTARTUP,
> and I got an 'unrecognized program/command/batch file' interrupt.
> 
> What's the deal with environmental variables? Are they specific to an
> interpreter session? That shouldn't be.

Yes they are - and yes, it should be that way. A process inherits the
environment of its parent. It can set its own environment, and if it forks
children, these will see that. But there is no way for a process to alter
the environment of its parent, let alone some arbitrary other process. This
is an OS-limitation (or feature) - so if you absolutely have to convince
somebody that it is bad, try Redmond :)

DIez