Yes, it is. I haven't had time to read the PEP, but I assumed some "backward compatibility" constraint is at work here too, since, e.g., subprocess.py has
If so, then it should be documented in PEP 291, otherwise backward compatibility stuff is fair game for ripping out.
Below is a trivial patch to PEP 291. I'm stepping forward as a maintainer, if noone else wants to do the job. diff -u -r1.11 pep-0291.txt --- pep-0291.txt 20 Aug 2004 07:32:06 -0000 1.11 +++ pep-0291.txt 13 Oct 2004 18:00:14 -0000 @@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ modulefinder Thomas Heller 2.2 Just van Rossum platform Marc-Andre Lemburg 1.5.2 + subprocess Peter Astrand 2.2 Tool Maintainer(s) Python Version /Peter Åstrand <astrand@lysator.liu.se>