[Tutor] broken script - curiouser and curiouser

[Lisi]

On Thursday 07 July 2011 00:48:24 Alan Gauld wrote:
> "Lisi" <lisi.reisz at gmail.com> wrote
>
> >>  :   File "ex26.py", line 10
> >>  :     def print_first_word(words)
> >>  :                               ^
> >>  : SyntaxError: invalid syntax
> >>  : lisi at Tux:~/Python/LearnPythonTheHardWay$
> >>
> >> Look at the error.  Look at the error carefully.
> >
> > I could see nothing that was different.
>
> The error report says you had no colon in your code.
> Python couldn't see it...

But there *was* a colon.  So why couldn't python see it?

> Are you sutre you didn't add it before posting but
> after running the code?

Positive.

> Or are you testing it by impotrting a module?
> In that case the interpreter may still be using
> the old version because you haven't reloaded
> the updated version?

 No

> > Yes - it was one of the first things I looked for when
> > the error came up (that and check that the brackets
> > were right).  It was there in what seemed to me
> > to be the right position.
>
> In that case I suspect the module theory.
> How are you running the code?

$ python ex14.py

> > In the end, having tried absolutely everything else
> > I could think of, and given that the error arose at
> > the closing bracket at the end of line 10, I
> > tried the only thing I could remotely think of that
> > I hadn't tried and put a space in between the
> > second bracket and the colon - and the wretched thing
> > ran.
>
> As you know that shouldn't have made any difference.
> Did you try going back and removing the space again
> and see if the error came back?

I now have at your suggestion, and it runs.  So I am now still  more 
mystified.  As I say I had tried retyping it (and checking carefully) umpteen 
times and also copied and pasted from a succesful function definition and 
checked the brackets and colon every time.

> > You could obviously see something wrong
>
> The posted error report had no colon.

Yes - but the script had one, which was why I included the actual script in my 
original post.  I seem to have cut too much in this email!

Thanks, Alan.

Lisi