def read(*parts):
    """
    Build an absolute path from *parts* and and return the contents of the
    resulting file.  Assume UTF-8 encoding.
    """
    with codecs.open(os.path.join(HERE, *parts), "rb", "utf-8") as f:
        return f.read()
def remove_backend(self, backend_id):
        """ Removes a backend from the treeview, and selects the first (to show
        something in the configuration panel

        @param backend_id: the id of the backend to remove
        """
        if backend_id in self.backendid_to_iter:
            self.liststore.remove(self.backendid_to_iter[backend_id])
            del self.backendid_to_iter[backend_id]
            self.select_backend()