Python binary operators are pretty much the same as in any other language, however I notice most programmers tend to waste a lot of memory by creating lots and lots of properties say in DB tables, or Objects and using the wrong datatypes. I think its elegant to use the concept of binary flags, for example, if you have an object that has around 8 or 16 boolean properties, you can store their state in 1 byte or 2 bytes (1 char or 2 char fields), and turn on/off the bits on those fields.

Usually, if you have a binary field, and you want to, turn on bits, toggle bits, and check bits, you do the following.

Suppose “config” is an 8 bit number, and you want to modify this bits individually, say config=4 (0b100) and you want to turn on the rightmost bit to have 0b101 (which is a 5) you could do the following

>>> #Uses the | operator
... def turnBitOn(config, binaryFlag):
...   return config | binaryFlag
... 
>>> config = 4
>>> config = turnBitOn(config,1)
>>> print config
5

If you want to check if a Bit is turned on, just use the “&” operator, if the result is the same as the bit you’re comparing, then its turned on.

>>> def checkBit(config,binaryFlag):
...   return binaryFlag == config & binaryFlag
... 
>>> print checkBit(config,1)
True
>>> print checkBit(config,2) #checks 0b010 in 0b101
False

What if you just want to toggle a bit, no matter what’s in there?
Just use binary XOR, the “^” operator.

>>> def toggleBit(config,binaryFlag):
...   return config ^ binaryFlag
... 
>>> print config
5
>>> config = toggleBit(config,1)
>>> print config
4
>>> config = toggleBit(config,1)
>>> print config
5

And now, the last basic operation would be to turn off a bit. For this, you should do a NAND operation. The Binary Not in python as in most programming languages is the “~” operator. This is how you can use it to turn off bits.

You have to do it in conjunction with the & operator, sort of doing a NAND

>>> 5 & (~1)
4
>>> 5 &~ 1
4

So we could define our turnOffBit function as follows:

>>> def turnOffBit(config,binaryFlag):
...   return config & (~binaryFlag)
... 
>>> print config
5
>>> config = turnOffBit(config,1)
>>> print config
4
>>> config = turnOffBit(config,1)
>>> print config
4

Hope this makes a good reference for those trying to make the most out of their bytes.

...
import urllib
import urllib2


#this is just to prepare a dynamic uri (this is actual code from a system I'm building, sorry)
fileDownloadServiceURL = '%s://%s:%s/%s' % (transport,server,port,pathToController)
postData = {'URI':fileUri} #add more post stuff here
postData = urllib.urlencode(postData) #make sure you encode your post data

#add some custom headers if you need them
headers={"Host": server+':'+port,"Cookie":"JSESSIONID="+sessionId,"User-Agent":"Name of your User-Agent Here"}

#prepare your request, with headers and post data
req = urllib2.Request(fileDownloadServiceURL,postData,headers)


#and this is the magic. Create a HTTPHandler object and put its debug level to 1
httpHandler = urllib2.HTTPHandler()
httpHandler.set_http_debuglevel(1)
        
#Instead of using urllib2.urlopen, create an opener, and pass the HTTPHandler
#and any other handlers... to it.
opener = urllib2.build_opener(httpHandler)

#User your opener to open the Request.
urlHandle = opener.open(req)
 
#you'll end up with a file-like object... which I called urlHandle
...

The ouput will have useful debugging info about the HTTP connection.

connect: (localhost, 8080)
send: u'POST /arcturus-web/fileVariableDownload.service HTTP/1.1rnAccept-Encoding: identityrnContent-Length: 57rnConnection: closernUser-Agent: Temboo Twyla/Arcturus HTTP DownloaderrnHost: localhost:8080rnCookie: JSESSIONID=1b8xl8nozb2irnContent-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencodedrnrn'
send: 'URI=temboo%3A%2F%2Fwww.one.com%2Ffiles.f%2Fmapping1.m.var'
reply: 'HTTP/1.1 200 OKrn'
header: Content-Language: en-US
header: Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
header: Connection: close
header: Server: Jetty(6.0.2)