Python console rejects an object reference, having made an object with that reference as its name in previous line

[Jussi Piitulainen]

Simon Evans writes:

> I had another attempt at inputting the code perhaps with the right
> indentation, I still get an error return, but not one that indicates
> that the code has not been read, as you suggested. re:-
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Python 2.7.6 (default, Nov 10 2013, 19:24:18) [MSC v.1500 32 bit
> (Intel)] on win 32
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> >>> from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
> >>> with open("ecologicalpyramid.html","r") as ecological_pyramid:
> ...      soup = BeautifulSoup(ecological_pyramid,"lxml")
> ... producer_entries = soup.find("ul")
>   File "<stdin>", line 3
>     producer_entries = soup.find("ul")
>                    ^
> SyntaxError: invalid syntax

It should look like this, except I'm using built-in functions to get a
single line from a file I happened to have around, and naming it beef
instead of soup:

Python 2.7.3 (default, Sep 26 2013, 16:38:10) 
[GCC 4.7.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> with open('let.scm') as whatever:
...    beef = next(whatever)
... 
>>> beef
'(define-syntax lets ;let-values, attempt to mod\n'
>>> 

Note the line with only "..." on it? That's where I pressed enter to
let the interpreter know that I had written all the code I wanted it
to handle at that point. I was rewarded with (1) no error message, (2)
a new prompt, where I entered, er, the four letters b e e f and then
pressed enter, and the interpreter printed the first line of my file
for me.