constructs are now importable from the "from sqlalchemy" namespace,
just like every other Core construct.
- The implicit conversion of strings to :func:`.text` constructs
when passed to most builder methods of :func:`.select` as
well as :class:`.Query` now emits a warning with just the
plain string sent.   The textual conversion still proceeds normally,
however.  The only method that accepts a string without a warning
are the "label reference" methods like order_by(), group_by();
these functions will now at compile time attempt to resolve a single
string argument to a column or label expression present in the
selectable; if none is located, the expression still renders, but
you get the warning again. The rationale here is that the implicit
conversion from string to text is more unexpected than not these days,
and it is better that the user send more direction to the Core / ORM
when passing a raw string as to what direction should be taken.
Core/ORM tutorials have been updated to go more in depth as to how text
is handled.
fixes #2992

e.g. the ``func`` construct.  Previously, behavior for this method
was undefined.  The current behavior mimics that of pre-0.9.4,
which is that the function is turned into a single-column FROM
clause with the given alias name, where the column itself is
anonymously named.
fixes #3137

- apply autopep8 + manual fixes to most of test/sql/

Found using: https://github.com/intgr/topy

is currently being supported in addition to nose, and will likely
be preferred to nose going forward.   The nose plugin system used
by SQLAlchemy has been split out so that it works under pytest as
well.  There are no plans to drop support for nose at the moment
and we hope that the test suite itself can continue to remain as
agnostic of testing platform as possible.  See the file
README.unittests.rst for updated information on running tests
with pytest.

The test plugin system has also been enhanced to support running
tests against mutiple database URLs at once, by specifying the ``--db``
and/or ``--dburi`` flags multiple times.  This does not run the entire test
suite for each database, but instead allows test cases that are specific
to certain backends make use of that backend as the test is run.
When using pytest as the test runner, the system will also run
specific test suites multiple times, once for each database, particularly
those tests within the "dialect suite".   The plan is that the enhanced
system will also be used by Alembic, and allow Alembic to run
migration operation tests against multiple backends in one run, including
third-party backends not included within Alembic itself.
Third party dialects and extensions are also encouraged to standardize
on SQLAlchemy's test suite as a basis; see the file README.dialects.rst
for background on building out from SQLAlchemy's test platform.

into the names used by standard functions in :mod:`sqlalchemy.sql.functions`,
such as ``func.coalesce()`` and ``func.max()``.  Using these functions
in ORM attributes and thus producing annotated versions of them could
corrupt the actual function name rendered in the SQL. [ticket:2927]

- remove informix, maxdb, access symbols from tests etc.

- went through examples/ and cleaned out excess list() calls

- other cleanup
- don't need compat.decimal, that approach never panned out. hopefully
outside libs aren't pulling it in, they shouldn't be