best:
if __name__ == '__main__':
while True:
entered = raw_input("Please enter your three-letter code or leave a blank line to quit: ")
if not entered: break
if len(entered) != 3:
print "%r is NOT three letters, it's %d" % (entered, len(entered))
continue
if not entered.isalpha():
print "%r are NOT all letters -- please enter exactly three letters, nothing else!"
continue
process(entered)