The page http://docs.python.org/lib/string-methods.html
reads, in part, "If sep is not specified or is None, a
different splitting algorithm is applied. First,
whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, newlines, returns,
and formfeeds) are stripped from both ends."  However,
this is not the behaviour that I'm seeing.  (Although,
I should note that I'd find the described behaviour
more desirable.)  Example,

>>> trow = '1586\tsome-int-name\tNODES: 111_222\n'
>>> print trow
1234    some-int-name   NODES: 111_222

>>> trow.split(None,2)
['1234', 'some-int-name', 'NODES: 111_222\n']
# end example.

Notice that the trailing newline has not been stripped
as the documentation said it should be.  Thanks all.

K.C.

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Also, (oops) the example comes from the most recent version:

$ python
Python 2.4.2 (#2, Oct  4 2005, 13:57:10) 
[GCC 3.4.2 [FreeBSD] 20040728] on freebsd5
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more
information.
>>> 

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I've provided a patch for this: #1414934.

I prefer the docs as they currently read.