Successfully send sms with python

[Laura Creighton]

In a message of Tue, 22 Sep 2015 22:25:31 -0600, Michael Torrie writes:
<snip>
>Consider something like this with no error checking when using the
>serial port, no context managers for the serial device:
>file sms.py:
>----------------------
>import serial
>import time
>
>serial_port = 'COM13'
>timeout = 5
>baud = 460800
>
>def send_message(recipient, message):
>    ser = serial.Serial(serial_port, baud, timeout=timeout)
>    time.sleep(1)
>    self.ser.write('ATZ\r')
>    time.sleep(1)
>    self.ser.write('AT+CMGF=1\r')
>    time.sleep(1)
>    self.ser.write('''AT+CMGS="''' + self.recipient + '''"\r\n''')
>    time.sleep(1)
>    self.ser.write(self.content + "\r\n")
>    time.sleep(1)
>    self.ser.write(chr(26))
>    time.sleep(1)
>    print "message sent!"
>
>    ser.close()

2 questions.
Why all the sleep(1)s?
and don't you need to flush the thing after each write?

Laura