Interesting thread. For some alternative ways of doing "pipe-like" stuff in Python (with more than one meaning of the term), see these links: Swapping pipe com

Interesting thread. For some alternative ways of doing "pipe-like" stuff in Python (with more than one meaning of the term), see these links: Swapping pipe components at runtime with pipe_controller: http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2012/10/swapping-pipe-components-at-runtime.html http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2012/10/swapping-pipe-components-a... That above post was the last in a series that I wrote over a period. The series describes both a) a small experimental tool I wrote, with examples of a few ways of using it, and b) some other Python-shell tool alternatives that I came across. pipe_controller was inspired by reading about and trying out some of those other tools. The post above links recursively to all the other posts in the series, but for convenience, I'm pasting selected other links below: Using PipeController to run a pipe incrementally: http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2012/09/using-pipecontroller-to-run-pipe.html http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2012/09/using-pipecontroller-to-ru... Some ways of doing UNIX-style pipes in Python: http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2011/09/some-ways-of-doing-unix-style-pipes-in.html http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2011/09/some-ways-of-doing-unix-st... Plumbum, UNIX shell-like library and tool in Python: http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2012/08/plumbum-unix-shell-like-library-and.html http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2012/08/plumbum-unix-shell-like-li...