2014: moving towards Python 3

My new year’s resolution is to move (slowly) towards Python 3. I don’t want to switch yet but I will use things in my code that will facilitate the transition in the future. Thus, from now on I will use this skeleton for my new scripts:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8

from __future__ import (absolute_import, division,
                        print_function, unicode_literals)

def main():
    pass

####################

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

“A future statement must appear near the top of the module. The only lines that can appear before a future statement are:

• the module docstring (if any),
• comments,
• blank lines, and
• other future statements.“

More info on the __future__ imports

• future statement definitions
• absolute_import
• division
• print_function
• unicode_literals

Compatibility layers

• future (reddit discussion)
• pies