Also note that it isn't just Linux nice() that is broken: at least FreeBSD
and BSDI also have this problem. os.nice() should probably just be emulated
using getpriority()/setpriority(), if they are available, but that isn't
worth putting in 2.1.1.
"Partial" as the code uses sys.prefix in an attempt to locate 'w9xpopen.exe', but sys.prefix is not set if Python can't find it itself. So this _still_ fails in Pythonwin, but I am committing the patch for 2 reasons:
* Embedded apps that set sys.prefix or use PYTHONHOME will work
* The exception raised on failure to find the executable is far more obvious
subset of Win32 ShellExecute's functionality. Guido wants this because
IDLE's Help -> Docs function currently crashes his machine because of a
conflict between his version of Norton AntiVirus (6.10.20) and MS's
_popen. Docs for startfile are being mailed to Fred (or just read the
docstring -- it tells the whole story).
Changed webbrowser.py to use os.startfile instead of os.popen on Windows.
Changed IDLE's EditorWindow.py to pass an absolute path for the docs
(hardcoding ShellExecute's "directory" arg to "." as used to be done let
IDLE work, but made the startfile command exceedingly obscure for other
uses -- the MS docs are terrible, of course, & still not sure I
understand it).
Note that Windows Python must link with shell32.lib now! That's where
ShellExecute lives.
glob.glob("k:*py") (i.e., a raw drive letter + colon at the start) were
using the root of the drive rather than the expected Windows behavior
of using the drive's "current directory".