gistfile1.py

import functools

class UnicodeMixin(object):
    """Mixin class to handle defining the proper __str__/__unicode__
    methods in Python 2 or 3."""

  if PY3:
    def __str__(self):
        return self.__unicode__()
  else:
    def __str__(self):
        return self.__unicode__().encode('utf8')


def console_safe(func):
    """ Decorator for making unicode functions console-friendly """
    if PY3:
        return func
   
    @functools.wraps(func)
    def inner(*args, **kwargs)
        res = func(*args, **kwargs)
        if isinstance(res, text_type): # XXX: use assert?
            res = res.encode('unicode-escape')
        return res

    return inner
     

class SomeNltkClass(SomeNltkBase, UnicodeMixin):
    # ...
    def __unicode__(self):
        return ...

    @console_safe
    def __repr__(self):
        return self.__unicode__()