Python 2 and 3 Compatibility: With Six and Python-Future Libraries

Discover clean ways to write code that will run on both Python 2 and 3.This book is tutorial-oriented with detailed examples of how to convert existing Python 2-compatible code to code that will run reliably on both Python 2 and 3.

Although Python 3 is considered the future of Python, Python 2.x will be maintained for several more years, alongside Python 3, which is not backwards compatible. For those who need to support both versions, this book guides you through the process.

Python 2 and 3 Compatibility explains the syntactical differences between Python 2 and 3, and how to use Python packages Python-Future and Six to implement neutral compatibility. Developers working on either small, medium, or large projects will appreciate the author’s clear explanations, detailed examples, and clean techniques to help them extend support for both versions to their existing Python 2-compatible projects.

What You’ll Learn

• Understand the syntactical differences between Python 2 and 3
• Use the Six and Future Libraries
• Review the new features in Python 3
• Choose which Python versions to support when doing neutral support
• Decide on whether to port or provide support for both versions

Who This Book Is For

Professional Python developers and enthusiasts that want to implement Python 3 support for their existing Python 2 compatible code.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Printing and Backtick repr
Chapter 2: Numbers
Chapter 3: Setting Metaclasses
Chapter 4: Strings and Bytes
Chapter 5: Package Imports
Chapter 6: Exceptions
Chapter 7: HTML Processing
Chapter 8: Working with Files
Chapter 9: Custom Behavior of Classes
Chapter 10: Collections and Iterators
Chapter 11: More Built-ins
Chapter 12: Standard Library Modules