A context-manager wrapper for running external binaries. Great for hiding scripts in other languages. Possibly an antipattern, but it works.

runnable.py

class Wrapper(object):
    """Communicate with a program via stdin/stdout.
        Wrap the communication in python so it "feels" like native code.
        See use by Runner, below.
    """
    def __init__(self, script):
        self.scriptname = os.path.basename(script)
        self.p = Popen([script], stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, bufsize=1)

        print("%s initialized" % self.scriptname)
        # Read the first line.
        print(self.p.stdout.readline())  

    def __call__(self, json_blob):
        try:
            print(json_blob, file=self.p.stdin)
            return self.p.stdout.readline()
        except Exception as e:
            print(e)

    def terminate(self):
        self.p.terminate()
        print("%s terminated" % self.scriptname)
    

class Runner(object):
    """Communicate with a program via stdin/stdout.
    
        Wrap the communication in python so it "feels" like native code.
        i.e. 
        arguments = {}  # some data
        with Runner('/path/to/terrible.php') as run:
            request = json.dumps(arguments)
            result = run(request)
            # do stuff with result
    """
    def __init__(self, script):
        self.script = Wrapper(script)

    def __enter__(self):
        return self

    def __call__(self, json_blob):
        return self.script(json_blob)

    def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb):
        self.script.terminate()
        return False  # Don't supress exceptions, if any.

terrible.php

#!/bin/env php
<?php
echo "terrible.php is ready!\n";
while (true) {
    // Read args from stdin.
    $arguments = json_decode(trim(fgets(STDIN)));
    if ($arguments) {
        $response = do_stuff($arguments);
        
        // Write json to stdout.
        echo json_encode($response, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES|JSON_FORCE_OBJECT) . "\n";
    }
}