PythonCookbook

Python Cookbook David Beazley Brian K. Jones Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Sebastopol • Tokyo Special Upgrade Offer If you purchased this ebook directly from oreilly.com, you have the following benefits: DRM-free ebooks—use your ebooks across devices without restrictions or limitations Multiple formats—use on your laptop, tablet, or phone Lifetime access, with free updates Dropbox syncing—your files, anywhere If you purchased this ebook from another retailer, you can upgrade your ebook to take advantage of all these benefits for just $4.99. Click here to access your ebook upgrade. Please note that upgrade offers are not available from sample content. Preface Since 2008, the Python world has been watching the slow evolution of Python 3. It was always known that the adoption of Python 3 would likely take a long time. In fact, even at the time of this writing (2013), most working Python programmers continue to use Python 2 in production. A lot has been made about the fact that Python 3 is not backward compatible with past versions. To be sure, backward compatibility is an issue for anyone with an existing code base. However......