using input(), raw_input() to allow user to run different functions

[rhvonlehe at gmail.com]

Something's been giving me difficulty..

We have a USB-attached device that we frequently debug with simple
python scripts.  The model has always been that each script logs on to
the device, does something, then logs off.  As it turns out, we have
mostly written scripts as unit tests for each API command.  So, we'll
call one script that will configure a process on the device, and a
separate script that will retrieve the results of that process.

The model is changing inside the device such that all settings will be
lost when we log off.  This means we'll have to merge a bunch of
scripts in various ways.

I thought it would be neat if I could have one master python script do
the logon, then allow the user to input the name of a previously-
written script he wanted to execute while logged on.  Finally, when
exiting the master script, the user would logout from the device.

I'm trying to test this by using input() or raw_input() to get the
function the user wants to execute.  I'm not having much luck.  Here's
an example:



Shell.py:
#! /usr/bin/env python
from CollectNDResults import *
...
request = input('Script shell >>> ')
print request
exec (request)   ## I realize the parentheses are not needed
...


When I run Shell.py I get this:

Script shell >>> CollectNDResults
<function CollectNDResults at 0x00AA75F0>
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./Shell.py", line 35, in ?
    Shell(sys.argv[1:])
  File "./Shell.py", line 24, in Shell
    exec (request)
TypeError: exec: arg 1 must be a string, file, or code object


Is there a good reference for me to figure out how to turn my function
name into the code object that I want to execute?  Is there a better
way to do what I'm trying to do?

Thanks,
Rich