diff --git a/cecil/core/__init__.py b/cecil/core/__init__.py
index 643e2f9..0153021 100644
--- a/cecil/core/__init__.py
+++ b/cecil/core/__init__.py
@@ -7,15 +7,20 @@ __all__ = ["objproxy", "config"]
 
 from . import objproxy, config
 
+try:
+	unicode
+except NameError:
+	unicode = str
+
 def ascii(s):
 	if isinstance(s, unicode):
-		return s.encode(b'ascii')
+		return s.encode(u'ascii')
 	else:
 		return str(s)
 
 def utf8(s):
 	if isinstance(s, unicode):
-		return s.encode(b'utf-8')
+		return s.encode(u'utf-8')
 	else:
 		return str(s)
 
@@ -23,17 +28,17 @@ def from_ascii(s):
 	if isinstance(s, unicode):
 		return s
 	else:
-		return s.decode(b'ascii')
+		return s.decode(u'ascii')
 
 def from_latin1(s):
 	if isinstance(s, unicode):
 		return s
 	else:
-		return s.decode(b'latin-1')
+		return s.decode(u'latin-1')
 
 def from_utf8(s):
 	if isinstance(s, unicode):
 		return s
 	else:
-		return s.decode(b'utf-8')
+		return s.decode(u'utf-8')
 
diff --git a/cecil/core/inifile.py b/cecil/core/inifile.py
index 889b14c..991b34e 100644
--- a/cecil/core/inifile.py
+++ b/cecil/core/inifile.py
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
 SOFTWARE.
 """
 
+try:
+	basestring
+except NameError:
+	basestring = str
 
 def sanitize_for_subst(key):
 	"""
@@ -66,7 +70,7 @@ class inifilesec(dict):
 			raise(KeyError, "Section '%s' has no key '%s'" % (self.name, key))
 		
 	def __setitem__(self, key, value):
-		if not self.has_key(key.lower()):
+		if not key.lower() in self:
 			if self.initializing:
 				self.verbatim_fields += [key]
 			else:
@@ -99,7 +103,8 @@ class inifile(dict):
 		return 
 
 	def read(self):
-		fd = file(self.fname, 'r')
+		fd = open(self.fname, 'r')
+
 			
 		act_section = 'default'
 		section_init = False
@@ -119,7 +124,7 @@ class inifile(dict):
 				if line[-1] == ']':
 					act_section = line[1:-1]
 					section_init = True
-					if not self.has_key(act_section.lower()):
+					if not act_section.lower() in self:
 						"add specified section"
 						actsec = inifilesec(act_section, self)
 						dict.__setitem__(self, act_section.lower(), actsec)
@@ -139,7 +144,7 @@ class inifile(dict):
 				else:
 					k = line[:peq]
 					v = line[peq+1:].rstrip('\n\r')
-					if not self.has_key(act_section.lower()):
+					if not act_section.lower() in self:
 						"add default section"
 						assert not section_init
 						
@@ -166,7 +171,7 @@ class inifile(dict):
 		else:
 			self.verbatim_hdr += ["\n"]
 		
-		if self.has_key('default'):
+		if 'default' in self:
 			"has a default section. make sure it's added to the section_order"
 			try:
 				self.section_order.index('default')
@@ -177,7 +182,8 @@ class inifile(dict):
 			secdict.initializing = False
 					
 	def write(self):
-		fd = file(self.fname, 'w')
+		fd = open(self.fname, 'w')
+
 		first = True
 		
 		fd.write("".join(self.verbatim_hdr))
@@ -198,7 +204,7 @@ class inifile(dict):
 			fd.write(secdict.verbatim_ftr)
 	
 	def add_section(self, key):
-		if not self.has_key(key):
+		if not key in self:
 			self[key.lower()] = inifilesec(key, self)
 			self.section_order += [key]
 		
@@ -208,7 +214,7 @@ class inifile(dict):
 			raise(TypeError, "Ini files can only contain string keys")
 			
 		if self.cur_section != None:
-			if dict.__getitem__(self, self.cur_section).has_key(key.lower()):
+			if key.lower() in dict.__getitem__(self, self.cur_section):
 				return dict.__getitem__(self, self.cur_section)[key.lower()]
 			else:
 				raise(KeyError, "Section '%s' does not contain a key named '%s'" % (self.cur_section, key))
@@ -218,7 +224,7 @@ class inifile(dict):
 			return dict.__getitem__(self, key.lower())
 	def __setitem__(self, key, value):
 		if self.cur_section != None:
-			if not self.has_key(self.cur_section):
+			if not self.cur_section in self:
 				raise(KeyError, "Section '%s' does not exist" % (self.cur_section))
 			self[self.cur_section][key.lower()] = value
 		else: