Update requests dependency, add str py2/3 compat, __repr__ definition, removed unicode2utf8 & encode static methods, update HISTORY

@ryanmcgrath Let me know if you're okay with the removal of
Twython.unicode2utf8 and Twython.encode. I moved Twython.encode to
_encode in helpers.py (only place being used is
Twython.construct_api_url) If it's python 2 and unicode then we encode
it, otherwise return the original value

[ci skip]

twython/compat.py

@@ -20,10 +20,12 @@ if is_py2:
     except ImportError:
         from cgi import parse_qsl
 
+    str = unicode
     basestring = basestring
 
 
 elif is_py3:
     from urllib.parse import urlencode, quote_plus, parse_qsl
 
+    str = str
     basestring = (str, bytes)

twython/helpers.py

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from .compat import basestring
+from .compat import basestring, is_py2, str
 
 
 def _transparent_params(_params):
@@ -17,3 +17,9 @@ def _transparent_params(_params):
         else:
             continue
     return params, files
+
+
+def _encode(value):
+    if is_py2 and isinstance(value, str):
+        value.encode('utf-8')
+    return value

twython/twython.py

@@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ from requests_oauthlib import OAuth1
 
 from . import __version__
 from .advisory import TwythonDeprecationWarning
-from .compat import json, urlencode, parse_qsl, quote_plus
+from .compat import json, urlencode, parse_qsl, quote_plus, str
 from .endpoints import api_table
 from .exceptions import TwythonError, TwythonAuthError, TwythonRateLimitError
-from .helpers import _transparent_params
+from .helpers import _encode, _transparent_params
 
 warnings.simplefilter('always', TwythonDeprecationWarning)  # For Python 2.7 >
 
@@ -106,6 +106,9 @@ class Twython(object):
         # create stash for last call intel
         self._last_call = None
 
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return '<Twython: %s>' % (self.app_key)
+
     def _constructFunc(self, api_call, deprecated_key, **kwargs):
         # Go through and replace any mustaches that are in our API url.
         fn = api_table[api_call]
@@ -346,7 +349,14 @@ class Twython(object):
 
     @staticmethod
     def construct_api_url(base_url, params):
-        return base_url + '?' + '&'.join(['%s=%s' % (Twython.unicode2utf8(key), quote_plus(Twython.unicode2utf8(value))) for (key, value) in params.iteritems()])
+        querystring = []
+        params, _ = _transparent_params(params)
+        params = requests.utils.to_key_val_list(params)
+        for (k, v) in params:
+            querystring.append(
+                '%s=%s' % (_encode(k), quote_plus(_encode(v)))
+            )
+        return '%s?%s' % (base_url, '&'.join(querystring))
 
     def searchGen(self, search_query, **kwargs):
         warnings.warn(
@@ -383,18 +393,3 @@ class Twython(object):
 
         for tweet in self.searchGen(search_query, **kwargs):
             yield tweet
-
-    @staticmethod
-    def unicode2utf8(text):
-        try:
-            if isinstance(text, unicode):
-                text = text.encode('utf-8')
-        except:
-            pass
-        return text
-
-    @staticmethod
-    def encode(text):
-        if isinstance(text, (str, unicode)):
-            return Twython.unicode2utf8(text)
-        return str(text)