old_contents: #!/usr/bin/python3.4
  # -*-coding:Utf-8 -*
  import time
  
  
  
  def now(short = True):
  	'''return short (HH:MM:SS) or long (DD.MM.AAAA-HH:MM:SS) formated current date strings'''
  	if short == True:
  		return time.strftime('%H:%M:%S')
  	else:
  		return time.strftime('%d.%m.%Y-%H:%M:%S')
  
  
  
  def columnLimit(value, limit, begin = True, sep = '|'):
  	'''make fix sized text column'''
  	if type(value) is not str:
  		value = str(value)
  	
  	if begin is True:
  		begin = limit# number of first caracter to display
  	
  	if len(value) > limit:
  		return (value[0:begin-1]+'…'# first caracter\
  				+value[len(value)-(limit-begin):]# last caracter\
  				+sep) # column seperator
  	else:
  		return value +  (' '*(limit-len(value)))  +sep# add space to match needed size
  
  
  
  
  
  def indexPrintList(l):
  	'''a function to print a list with element index'''
  	
  	for i, v in enumerate(l):
  		print(str(i)+'- '+str(v))
  	
  
  
  
  
  
  class XML:
  	''' a class containing usefull method for XML'''
  	
  	entities = {
  				'\'':'&apos;',
  				'"':'&quot;',
  				'<':'&lt;',
  				'>':'&gt;'
  				}
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	def encode(txt):
  		'''replace XML entities by XML representation'''
  		txt.replace('&', '&amp;')
  		
  		for entity, code in XML.entities.items():
  			txt.replace(entity, code)
  		
  		return txt
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	def decode(txt):
  		'''XML representation by the original character'''
  		for entity, code in XML.entities.items():
  			txt.replace(code, entity)
  		
  		txt.replace('&amp;', '&')
  		
  		return txt
  
  
  
  
  
  
new_contents: #!/usr/bin/python3.4
  # -*-coding:Utf-8 -*
  import time
  
  
  
  def now(short = True):
  	'''return current date in short or long form (HH:MM:SS or DD.MM.AAAA-HH:MM:SS)'''
  	if short == True:
  		return time.strftime('%H:%M:%S')
  	else:
  		return time.strftime('%d.%m.%Y-%H:%M:%S')
  
  
  
  def columnLimit(value, limit, begin = True, sep = '|'):
  	'''make fix sized text column'''
  	if type(value) is not str:
  		value = str(value)
  	
  	if begin is True:
  		begin = limit# number of first caracter to display
  	
  	if len(value) > limit:
  		return (value[0:begin-1]+'…'# first caracter\
  				+value[len(value)-(limit-begin):]# last caracter\
  				+sep) # column seperator
  	else:
  		return value +  (' '*(limit-len(value)))  +sep# add space to match needed size
  
  
  
  
  
  def indexPrintList(l):
  	'''a function to print a list with element index'''
  	
  	for i, v in enumerate(l):
  		print(str(i)+'- '+str(v))
  	
  
  
  
  
  
  class XML:
  	''' a class containing usefull method for XML'''
  	
  	entities = {
  				'\'':'&apos;',
  				'"':'&quot;',
  				'<':'&lt;',
  				'>':'&gt;'
  				}
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	def encode(txt):
  		'''replace XML entities by XML representation'''
  		txt.replace('&', '&amp;')
  		
  		for entity, code in XML.entities.items():
  			txt.replace(entity, code)
  		
  		return txt
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	def decode(txt):
  		'''XML representation by the original character'''
  		for entity, code in XML.entities.items():
  			txt.replace(code, entity)
  		
  		txt.replace('&amp;', '&')
  		
  		return txt
  
  
  
  
  
  
subject: clarify comment