Python Unit Test Automation

Python 2.x is legacy, Python 3.x is the present and future of the language.
One of the major arguments in favor of Python 2 is its extensive documentation, 
books, and third-party libraries. However, most of the developers are porting their custom 
libraries to Python 3 already. Almost all the major third-party libraries are ported and 
fully supported for Python 3. As far as books and documentation is concerned, authors 
like me are extensively writing for Python 3. As time elapses, more documentation for 
Python 3 will surely be available.
New generation of programmers are introduced to Python 3 as their first 
programming language. When they are comfortable with the concept and philosophy 
of Python programming, they are gradually introduced to Python 2. Many organizations 
have already started migrating codebases from Python 2 to Python 3. Almost all new 
projects in Python extensively use Python 3.
I personally think that these are pretty good reasons to use Python 3.
 
■
Note   If you want your codebase to be future proof, move to python 3 right away! 
If you are starting a new project, choose python 3 irrespective of cost and any hurdles 
you face. this is because python 2 will see sunset (eoL: end of Life) in 2020 and, 
beyond that, support from the python Foundation will not be guaranteed. If you stick to 
python 2, its maintenance costs will escalate and will exceed the cost of implementing 
python 3. read the pep 373 at 
http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0373/
 for 
more details.
Installation of Python 3
This section discusses how to install Python 3 on various commonly used computer OSs.
Installation on Linux
Linux has many popular distributions. Python 3 is pre-installed on many popular 
distributions.
Installation on Debian, Ubuntu, and Derivatives
The Python 3 interpreter comes pre-installed on the latest releases of Debian, Ubuntu, 
and their derivatives.

---

Chapter 1 
■
 IntroduCtIon to python
8
Installation on Fedora and CentOS
The Python 3 interpreter comes pre-installed on the latest releases of Fedora and CentOS.
 
■
Note   on most of the latest Linux distributions, both versions of python (python 2 and 
python 3) are installed by default. the interpreter for python 2 is a binary executable file 
named 
python
 and the interpreter for python 3 is another binary executable file named 
python3
. you can use 
python3 --V
 or 
python3 --version
 to check the version of the 
python 3 interpreter installed on your Linux computer. also, you can use the 
which python3
 
command to determine the location of the interpreter on the disk.
Installation on MacOS X
On MacOS X, the Python 2 interpreter is installed by default and can be invoked from 
the terminal using the python command. If you want to use Python 3, you have to install 
it. Make sure that the computer is connected to the Internet and run the brew install 
python3 command in the terminal. This will install Python 3. It will also install other 
utilities, such as pip, setuptools, and wheel.
Once the installation finishes, go to the terminal and type python3 --V or python3 
--version to check the version of the Python 3 interpreter installed.
Installation on Windows
In Windows OS, Python 3 installation requires a bit more effort. Python 2 or Python 3 
is not pre-installed on a Windows computer. In order to install it, you have to visit the 
downloads section of the Python web site at 
https://www.python.org/downloads
, as 
shown in Figure 
1-1
.