def to_binary_string(obj, encoding=None):
    """Convert `obj` to binary string (bytes in Python 3, str in Python 2)"""
    if PY2:
        # Python 2
        if encoding is None:
            return str(obj)
        else:
            return obj.encode(encoding)
    else:
        # Python 3
        return bytes(obj, 'utf-8' if encoding is None else encoding)