pywordnet install problems

[Steven Bethard]

vdrab wrote:
> hello pythoneers,
> 
> I recently tried to install wordnet 2.0 and pywordnet on both an ubuntu
> linux running python 2.4 and a winXP running activePython 2.4.1, and I
> get the exact same error on both when I try to "from wordnet import *"
> :
> 
> running install
> error: invalid Python installation: unable to open
> /usr/lib/python2.4/config/Makefile (No such file or directory)
> 
> Adding the directories and files in question (touch Makefile) makes the
> install go through but (obviously) breaks the import of wordnet.py:
> 
>>>>import wordnet
> 
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
>   File "wordnet.py", line 1348, in ?
>     N = Dictionary(NOUN, 'noun')
>   File "wordnet.py", line 799, in __init__
>     self.indexFile = _IndexFile(pos, filenameroot)
>   File "wordnet.py", line 945, in __init__
>     self.rewind()
>   File "wordnet.py", line 958, in rewind
>     if (line[0] != ' '):
> IndexError: string index out of range
> 
> Is this pywordnet package abandoned, are there weird versioning issues,
> or am I just extremely unlucky for the install to fail on two machines?

Which version of WordNet do you have installed?  I remember that when I 
tried upgrading to the current version of WordNet, pywordnet broke.  I 
don't think the module is maintained very well; I've submitted a number 
of bug reports and RFE patches and not had any of them responded to.  If 
I had the time, I'd pick up the project, but I don't at the moment...

STeVe