i am moving on to just python3

[Skaperen]

the reason i have decided to go ahead and abandon Python2 before its EOL and move on to just Python3 is because Python2 does not support using * for arguments in a function def statement followed by named options spelled out explicitly. that is:

lt1/forums /home/forums 2> py2
Python 2.7.12 (default, Dec  4 2017, 14:50:18) 
[GCC 5.4.0 20160609] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> def myfunction(*myargs,myopt1=None):
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    def myfunction(*myargs,myopt1=None):
                                ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> 
lt1/forums /home/forums 3> py3
Python 3.5.2 (default, Nov 23 2017, 16:37:01) 
[GCC 5.4.0 20160609] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> def myfunction(*myargs,myopt1=None):
...     return
... 
>>> 
lt1/forums /home/forums 4>

that plus better handling (still not perfect) of bytes and Unicode.