In Python how should I test if a variable is None, True or False

Question

if result is None:
    print "error parsing stream"
elif result:
    print "result pass"
else:
    print "result fail"

keep it simple and explicit. You can of course pre-define a dictionary.

messages = {None: 'error', True: 'pass', False: 'fail'}
print messages[result]

If you plan on modifying your simulate function to include more return codes, maintaining this code might become a bit of an issue.

The simulate might also raise an exception on the parsing error, in which case you'd either would catch it here or let it propagate a level up and the printing bit would be reduced to a one-line if-else statement.

Don't fear the Exception! Having your program just log and continue is as easy as:

try:
    result = simulate(open("myfile"))
except SimulationException as sim_exc:
    print "error parsing stream", sim_exc
else:
    if result:
        print "result pass"
    else:
        print "result fail"

# execution continues from here, regardless of exception or not

And now you can have a much richer type of notification from the simulate method as to what exactly went wrong, in case you find error/no-error not to be informative enough.

Never, never, never say

if something == True:

Never. It's crazy, since you're redundantly repeating what is redundantly specified as the redundant condition rule for an if-statement.

Worse, still, never, never, never say

if something == False:

You have not. Feel free to use it.

Finally, doing a == None is inefficient. Do a is None. None is a special singleton object, there can only be one. Just check to see if you have that object.

There are many good answers. I would like to add one more point. A bug can get into your code if you are working with numerical values, and your answer is happened to be 0.

a = 0 
b = 10 
c = None

### Common approach that can cause a problem

if not a:
    print(f"Answer is not found. Answer is {str(a)}.") 
else:
    print(f"Answer is: {str(a)}.")

if not b:
    print(f"Answer is not found. Answer is {str(b)}.") 
else:
    print(f"Answer is: {str(b)}")

if not c:
    print(f"Answer is not found. Answer is {str(c)}.") 
else:
    print(f"Answer is: {str(c)}.")

Answer is not found. Answer is 0.   
Answer is: 10.   
Answer is not found. Answer is None.

### Safer approach 
if a is None:
    print(f"Answer is not found. Answer is {str(a)}.") 
else:
    print(f"Answer is: {str(a)}.")

if b is None:
    print(f"Answer is not found. Answer is {str(b)}.") 
else:
    print(f"Answer is: {str(b)}.")

if c is None:
    print(f"Answer is not found. Answer is {str(c)}.") 
else:
    print(f"Answer is: {str(c)}.")

Answer is: 0.
Answer is: 10.
Answer is not found. Answer is None.