clean up open file handles properly
sync with vsc-base
implement read_file and write_file functions for 'safely' reading/writing files, and use them
add note on try-except-finally not being available yet in Python 2.4
Merge pull request #620 from boegel/fix_open_files

clean up open file handles properly
Merge branch 'develop' into search_help

Conflicts:
	easybuild/main.py