title: Python: data vs. text?
body: <p>Guido van Rossum's presentation about <a href="http://www.python.org/doc/essays/ppt/euro2008/Py3kEuro08.pdf" rel="noreferrer">Python 3000</a> mentions several things to make a transition from Python 2 to Python 3 easier eventually. He is specifically talking about text handling since the move to Unicode as the only representation of strings in Python 3 is one of the major changes.</p>
  
  <p>As far as text handling goes, one slide (#14) says:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>In 2.6: 
  
  <ul>
  <li>Use bytes and b'…' for all data (Knowing these are just aliases for str and '…')</li>
  <li>Use unicode and u'...' for all text</li>
  </ul></li>
  <li>In 2.5:
  
  <ul>
  <li>'...' for data, u'...' for text</li>
  </ul></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I am using Python 2.6.4. What exactly does this mean for me?</p>
  
  <p>In Python's world, what is the difference between data and text?</p>