Why is w9xpopen.exe bundled with Python 2.7 on Windows?

[Terry Reedy]

On 8/29/2014 9:16 PM, ps16thypresenceisfullnessofjoy at gmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, August 29, 2014 8:54:47 PM UTC-4, Terry Reedy wrote:
>> Please be more specific as to python installer source, python
>> version,
>>
>> and location. I do not see it in my 2.7.8 directory installed by
>> the psf
>>
>> .msi installer.
>
> I'm also using the Python 2.7.8 MSI installer from the PSF, but the
> 32-bit version of it. The file is in the top-level Python27
> directory. I just checked, and a 64-bit installation of Python 2.7
> that I have access to doesn't contain w9xpopen.exe. Are you using the
> 64-bit version? I don't see the need for it in the 32-bit version
> either, unless there's a reason I'm not aware of.

The tracker has a search function. Searching all issues for 'w9xpopen' 
turned up 15 issues including
http://bugs.python.org/issue2405
The last msg by (benrg) starts "on Windows 7 32-bit with COMSPEC 
pointing to command.com, platform.popen('dir').read() works with 
w9xpopen and fails (no output) without it."

http://bugs.python.org/issue14470
In 3.4, we no longer support platforms that set COMSPEC to command.com, 
hence 'BOOM'.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy