Avoid an infinite loop in encoding, by ensuring EncodeDecimal
returns a string. round(Decimal) used to convert it to
float, but it no longer does in python 3.x. Strings are
supported since #6380, so just use that.
Python's httplib does not graciously handle disconnections from the http server, resulting in BadStatusLine errors.
See https://bugs.python.org/issue3566 "httplib persistent connections violate MUST in RFC2616 sec 8.1.4."
This was fixed in Python 3.5.
Work around it for now.