All of the examples from https://docs.python.org/3/library/csv.html run without issue on OSX, though.

In summary, the Python 2 examples error out on OSX and switching them to use 'U' instead of 'b' would fix this. I don't think any action needs to be taken for Python 3.

My one remaining question is about binary files on Windows. The Python 2 csv docs say "If csvfile is a file object, it must be opened with the ‘b’ flag on platforms where that makes a difference." I don't readily have a Windows machine to play with this -- do "binary" CSV files exist, or can we eliminate the 'b' language entirely and just talk about 'U'?