Raspberry PI - Python 2 and 3 - Print, Serial, GPIO

As a Python newbie, I am stumbling upon things about it as I go along.

One of the things that I have discovered is that in Python 2, you can import the serial function that is used in Python 3 using the following:

from __future__ import print_function

then you can use the Python 3 print function in Python 2 programs

print(*args, sep=' ', end='\n', file=None)

From what I am reading (I am a real Python newbie) for the beginning programmer the biggest difference between 2 and 3 is the the way print works - in 2 it is a statement, in 3 it is a function.


Also, it looks like you can install the important Serial and GPIO support modules to work under Python 2 or 3. I assume that the module install routine detects what version it is being installed for and does the "right thing".

For Serial see: http://pyserial.sourceforge.net/pyserial.html

For GPIO see: http://code.google.com/p/raspberry-gpio-python/downloads/list

I have not really experimented with this yet, but it would mean that you should be able to do most common programming using Python 3, which from what I am reading, is the preferred version to use.

Apparently the only real reason to use 2 is if there is some module you absolutely need that just does not work in 3 (yet).



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