pythonic exec* spawn*

[Daniel Nogradi]

> >I would like to pass the whole object at once to the second python
> >program which should start doing its thing with it while the original
> >program should keep running.
>
> os.fork() does that (on Mac and Unix).
>

Okay, but how? It seems to me that if the process which issued
os.fork() ends, then the forked process also ends. And what I would
need is that regardless of the execution time of the original program,
the second one which the original starts (or forks) should finish what
it supposed to do. Roughly I have the following in mind:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
def longer( data ):
    # do some stuff, that takes long


# do something to collect data

data = something

# here call the function longer( data ) in a way
# that execution of the code doesn't stop, so
# we get to the following print and then to the end

print "okay, the first program finished"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But the execute of longer( data ) should keep going even though the
original program ended. I'm pretty sure it's something basic and
probably I'm not aware of the right concepts and that's why I can't
find the right place to look in the docs.