Bizarre L298N Functioning

Apparently you can use either and it is suggested it may be safer to use the BOARD numbers if you are going to use more than one RPi in a project.

The same code but this time using the BOARD numbers.

import RPi.GPIO as gpio
import time

def init():
gpio.setmode(gpio.BOARD)
gpio.setup(11,gpio.OUT)
gpio.setup(15,gpio.OUT)
gpio.setup(16,gpio.OUT)
gpio.setup(18,gpio.OUT)

def forward(tf):
init()
gpio.output(11,False)
gpio.output(15,True)
gpio.output(16,False)
gpio.output(18,True)
time.sleep(tf)
gpio.cleanup()

def reverse(tf):
init()
gpio.output(11,True)
gpio.output(15,False)
gpio.output(16,True)
gpio.output(18,False)
time.sleep(tf)
gpio.cleanup()

print ("forward")
forward(3)
print ("reverse")
reverse(3)

Keep in mind I am also new to interfacing the RPi so I am in learning mode with the RPi as I am with the Python language.  This is only my second go at it as I have been concentrating on the Arduino coding up to now.  I used Python 3 but I can't answer your question as to the difference here.  I asked the question because in Python 3 you need to place the text to print in brackets.

print "hello"  vs  print ("hello")