[Tutor] Problem Moving Python Program From WIndows to Linux

[Jethro Cramp]

I have hit upon a thorny little problem. I had started building a 
program on Windows ME and then I moved over to Linux and want to keep 
working on it.

I have hit a number of problems where my python files won't run on 
Linux. On Windows there is no problem.

On both systems I am using Python 2.0. My Linux system is SuSE7.1

The problem is to do with reading files and then splitting the fields. 
So I have a text file of the following format:


Imperial Black		=3.01
Mountain White		=2.7
Canton Green		=2.8

etc.etc
These are names of different types of stone and their mass in MT.
The format is <NAME> a couple of tabs for legibility "=" then <MASS>

The code I use is like this:

def Get_Materials_List():
     materialsfile = open(rkpaths.material_specs, "r")
     materials = {}

     for material in materialsfile.readlines():
         #Ignores blank lines, comments, and currency demarcation
         if not material=="\n" and not material[:1] == "#" and not 
material[:1] =="[":
             #Get the material name and the mass stripping white spaces
             print material
             mat, mass = map(string.strip, string.split(material, "="))
             materials[string.upper(mat)] = (mat,mass)

The error I get when I run this code is:

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
   File "/usr/lib/python2.0/rk/rkcalc.py", line 172, in Get_Materials_List
     mat, mass = map(string.strip, string.split(material, "="))
ValueError: unpack list of wrong size

Are the tab stops being treated differently in Linux from Windows?
Also when I open a file in idle that I wrote under windows there is a 
"\r" at the end of each line. Is this some kind of windows specific end 
of line character.

If I read the file manually like so:

 >>> file = open(rkpaths.material_specs, "r")
 >>> x = file.readlines()
for entry in x:
	print entry

# This file contains a list of materials and their mass in MT/m3\r

\r
Imperial Black		= 3.01\r

Chinese Tarn		= 2.7\r

Mongolian Red		= 2.7\r

Mountain White		= 2.7\r

Dragon Beige		= 2.7\r

etc.etc.

Then I try:

 >>> for entry in x:
	x,y = string.split(entry,"=")


Traceback (innermost last):
   File "<pyshell#24>", line 2, in ?
     x,y = string.split(entry,"=")
ValueError: unpack list of wrong size

Notice all the '\r' entries.

Anyone know what's going on and what I have to do. Do I have to convert 
all my scripts using dos2unix?

TIA,

Jethro