iybzpoboxcom nick thats exactly problem though 2to3 fixer nick written tiny subset formatting calls meet nick constraints gave personal experience either lhs string literal rhs locals globals tuple yes hard impossible time general x still think fixer addresses tiny subset would go long ways converting existing code rest could insert special comments programmer grep problematic cases quick backoftheenvelope check counted number occurrences 25 source found 4555 instances either single quote double quote preceded leading space 3943 cases 2051 cases obviously overlapping preceding count trailing space followed left paren left brace 21 cases trailing space followed call locals globals think something like 8590 uses python core able converted mechanically nick understanding matches benjamins string formatting nick definitely second way something strformat nick preferred approach getting rid py3k nick isnt worth staggering amount breakage would result true im implying anything broken much work mechanical conversion also us formatting remain first way generating formatted string output long exists language skip _______________________________________________ python3000 mailing list smsbmo9552pythonorg httpmailpythonorgmailmanlistinfopython3000 unsubscribe httpmailpythonorgmailmanoptionspython3000python300040tangomucom thu 07 aug 2008 085715 0500 python3000 implementing formatting terms strformat