You'll be glad to hear that Python did stop doing this: Python 3 has never behaved this way, and its `lower` and `upper` methods have always been independent of

You'll be glad to hear that Python did stop doing this: Python 3 has never behaved this way, and its `lower` and `upper` methods have always been independent of your locale or anything else from your system. The workaround in the OP was added in 2006 (note the reference to an issue on "SF", i.e. SourceForge -- another era!), and is now long obsolete.