Some error messages in Python are ugly

[george.f.rice at gmail.com]

On May 11, 3:10 am, wxPytho... at gmail.com wrote:
> This really looks ugly for an error message:
>
> [1]+  Stopped                 python
>
> Please explain to me the role of the '+' sign. And why is there such a
> gap between 'Stopped' and 'python'?

I suspect you were running the python command line in a Linux shell
such as bash, and pressed Control-Z.

The message you list above is NOT an error message from Python, but
rather an informational message from the Linux shell. The short answer
is to type "fg" and press Enter twice, and Python will resume
executing.

Here's the long answer.

This message from the Linux shell is telling you that the python
process (application) has been stopped, and is no longer executing.
"[1]" tells you the job number; Linux supports  multiple stopped jobs,
and gives each a number to make it easy for you to give them
commands.  "+" tells you that this is the "active job"; it's at the
top of the queue, and is the job that will respond to your job-related
commands by default (i.e., if you don't supply a job number).

You can list all jobs in the queue by typing "jobs" at the Linux shell
prompt. You can begin running the "active job" again by typing fg
(which means "foreground"); you could also switch the "active job" to
running in the background by typing bg, although that wouldn't be
useful with the Python shell.

You can learn more about managing jobs from the Python shell here:
http://www.slackbasics.org/html/chap-procmgmt.html

Great question!