diff --git a/lib/damask/environment.py b/lib/damask/environment.py
index 27895b544..756ea32c5 100644
--- a/lib/damask/environment.py
+++ b/lib/damask/environment.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ class Environment():
               ]
 
   def __init__(self,rootRelation = '.'):
-    self.rootRelation = rootRelation                    
+    self.rootRelation = rootRelation
     self.options = {}
     self.get_options()
 
@@ -22,44 +22,40 @@ class Environment():
       if sys.argv[0] == '':                                 # no caller path
         cwd = os.getcwd()
       else:
-        cwd = {False: os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]),
-                True:                 sys.argv[0]}[os.path.isdir(sys.argv[0])]
+        cwd = sys.argv[0] if os.path.isdir(sys.argv[0]) else os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])
+
       damask_root = os.path.normpath(os.path.join(os.path.realpath(cwd),self.rootRelation))
 
     return damask_root
 
   def binDir(self):
     damask_bin  = os.getenv('DAMASK_BIN')
-    if damask_bin  == '' or damask_bin  == None: damask_bin = self.relPath('bin/')
+    if damask_bin == '' or damask_bin  == None: damask_bin = self.relPath('bin/')
     return damask_bin
 
   def get_options(self):
-    try:                                                    # check for user-defined pathinfo
-      file = open(self.relPath('installation/options'))
-      content = map(lambda string: string.strip(),file.readlines())
-      file.close()
-      for line in content:
-        if not (line.startswith('#') or line == ''):
-          items = line.split('=') + ['','']
+    with open(self.relPath('installation/options')) as file:
+      for line in file:
+        l = line.strip()
+        if not (l.startswith('#') or l == ''):
+          items = l.split('=') + ['','']
           if items[1] != '':                                # nothing specified
             self.options[items[0].upper()] = items[1]
-    except:
-      pass
       
-  def isAvailable(self,software,noNeeded=-1):
+  def isAvailable(self,software,Nneeded =-1):
     licensesNeeded = {'abaqus'  :5,
                       'standard':5,
                       'explicit':5}
-    if noNeeded == -1: noNeeded = licensesNeeded[software]
+    if Nneeded == -1: Nneeded = licensesNeeded[software]
     cmd = """ ssh mulicense2 "/Stat_Flexlm | grep 'Users of %s: ' | cut -d' ' -f7,13" """%software
     process = subprocess.Popen(shlex.split(cmd),stdout = subprocess.PIPE,stderr = subprocess.PIPE)
     licenses = map(int, process.stdout.readline().split())
     try:
-      if licenses[0]-licenses[1] >= noNeeded:
+      if licenses[0]-licenses[1] >= Nneeded:
         return 0
       else:
-        print(licenses[1] + noNeeded - licenses[0], 'missing licenses for %s'%software)
-        return licenses[1] + noNeeded - licenses[0]
+        print(licenses[1] + Nneeded - licenses[0], 'missing licenses for %s'%software)
+        return licenses[1] + Nneeded - licenses[0]
     except IndexError:
       print('Could not retrieve license information for %s'%software)
       return 127