Syntax error after upgrading to Python 2.4

[Peter Hansen]

Fernando wrote:
> I reinstalled version 2.3.5 and everything works fine now. It's
> definately something related to the latest version.

No problem in software is definite until you actually know what the 
solution is.  I'd suspect something other than a simple problem in 2.4 
itself, since otherwise it is highly likely others would already have 
encountered it.

Since a SyntaxError is raised during compilation (during import) and not 
execution, it should be possible to get that even on another machine 
without all the related code.  Care to email me a copy of that file and 
I'll investigate it for you?  I have both 2.3 and 2.4 installed and it 
shouldn't take long for me to figure out what the problem is, or at 
least to prove that it is not a 2.4 issue.  If you can't do that, try 
removing all the code except the "class" line and that one method in the 
class.  It should still give a syntax error for the same line.

> <rant>
> This is one of the main resons I finally gave up using Python and
> switched to Smalltalk. You can't concentrate on your work while someone
> is permanently introducing changes to your tool.

Python has one of the absolute best backwards-compatibility records in 
the history of software, IMHO.  While I can't offer a comparison with 
Smalltalk, I really doubt Smalltalk has been (or could be) significantly 
better unless it hasn't changed at all in 30 years...

Still, someone has to be the first to find each bug, and maybe you've 
discovered one in 2.4.  Let me have that file (or a reduced version of 
it that still generates the problem) and I'll prove one of us wrong. :-)

-Peter