why do we invoke print after importing print_function (in Python 2.6)

Question

To get the 3.0 print function we do the following in Python 2.6:

from __future__ import print_function

But to use the function we invoke pr

Answer 1

print_function is a FeatureName not be confused with the print built-in function itself. It is a feature that is available from the future so that you can use the built-in function that it can provide.

Other Features include:

all_feature_names = [
    "nested_scopes",
    "generators",
    "division",
    "absolute_import",
    "with_statement",
    "print_function",
    "unicode_literals",
]

There are specific reasons as when you migrate your code to next higher version, your program will remain as such as use the updated feature instead of the __future__ version. Also if it were function name or the keyword itself, it may cause confusion to the parser.