>>> s
'abcde'
>>> for i in [None] + range(-1,-len(s), -1):
... print s[:i]
...
abcde
abcd
abc
ab
a
>>> s
'abcde'
>>> for i in [0] + range(-1,-len(s), -1):
... print s[:i]
...
abcd
abc
ab
a
>>> print s[:0]
>>> print s[:None]
abcde
>>> s
'abcde'
>>> for i in [None] + range(-1,-len(s), -1):
... print s[:i]
...
abcde
abcd
abc
ab
a
>>> s
'abcde'
>>> for i in [0] + range(-1,-len(s), -1):
... print s[:i]
...
abcd
abc
ab
a
>>> print s[:0]
>>> print s[:None]
abcde