Python 2/3 Compatibility

This guideline documents coding conventions to achieve hybrid Python-2.7/Python-3.5 compatibility in Sahana.

It's a working document that will be added to as we move towards full Python-3 compatibility.

Syntax

No print statements

Don't use the print statement anywhere:

print "example" # deprecated

You shouldn't use the print-function either, because it can clash with uWSGI:

print("example") # not good

...but it can be tolerated in CLI scripts which don't run in the WSGI environment.

Best option for debug output is to use sys.stderr.write:

import sys
sys.stderr.write("example\n") # better

...or the logger (as it can be configured globally to write to a log file instead of the system console):

current.log.debug("example") # even better

Use as-syntax for catching exceptions

When catching exceptions in a variable, don't use the comma-syntax:

try:
    ...
except Exception, e: # deprecated
    ...

Instead, use the as-keyword:

try:
    ...
except Exception as e: # new standard
    ...

No implicit package-relative imports

Python-3 does not search for modules relative to the current module in the same package - unless explicitly indicated by leading . or .. in the module path.

from s3datetime import s3_format_datetime # inside modules/s3, not working in Python-3

Python-2.7 would search relative to the current module, but on the other hand, its supports the explicit-relative syntax as well.

So we decide that only explicit paths shall be used in imports.

To import a module in the same package (e.g. within s3), either use explicit-relative syntax:

from .s3datetime import s3_format_datetime # inside modules/s3, preferred variant

...or an absolute path relative to modules (or the global python path):

from s3.s3datetime import s3_format_datetime # inside modules/s3, acceptable alternative

Outside of modules/s3, you should always import from the top-level of the s3 package (because the package structure may change over time):

from s3 import s3_format_datetime # outside modules/s3