Batch commands on Windows

[Josiah Carlson]

> It is a small subset, but an important subset.  Shell scripting started
> probably when people got sick of typing the same commands into the prompt.
> For a language to really support shell scripting, it should provide a way of
> automating the process of typing in the commands.  As in, there should be no
> difference whether you're actually typing, or you're running the script.

Python is not a shell, nor scripting language.  It does contain an 
interactive interpreter for executing Python code, and it does have 
support for executing programs through calling a shell, but that does 
not necessitate (or warrant) it having every feature for shell scripting 
that everyone wants.

JanC makes a great point about the fact that commands are run in a 
subshell, and any environment changes are lost when the subshell 
terminates.  I believe this is by design.

Perhaps you should look into os.popen2 and friends.  You can execute a 
command shell (cmd.exe or command.com), send it commands, and read its 
output.  On Windows it is a little awkward right now, but os.popen5 is 
supposed to make it easy to deal with such things.  Hopefully it will 
make it into Python 2.4.

  - Josiah