Slight change to the string methods recommendation; we mitigate the

recommendation if compatibility with pre-Python 2.0 is necessary.

pep-0008.txt

@@ -518,9 +518,10 @@ Programming Recommendations
         class MessageError(Exception):
             """Base class for errors in the email package."""
 
-    - Avoid the use of the string module; instead use string methods.
+    - Use string methods instead of the string module unless
-      These are always much faster and share the same API with unicode
+      backward-compatibility with versions earlier than Python 2.0 is
-      strings.
+      important.  String methods are always much faster and share the
+      same API with unicode strings.
 
     - Avoid slicing strings when checking for prefixes or suffixes.
       Use startswith() and endswith() instead, since they are faster,