[Tutor] broken script - curiouser and curiouser

[Lisi]

On Thursday 07 July 2011 10:21:59 Walter Prins wrote:
> Hi Lisi
>
> On 7 July 2011 08:52, Lisi <lisi.reisz at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > 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!
>
> The error message from Python is quoting what the interpreter read/saw from
> the script file it was running.  If it quoted no colon, then there was no
> colon in the python file read by the interpreter, at the time that it tried
> to run it.  Your job is to figure out how this has happened.  Do you maybe
> have several copies of the script lying around in different folders? 

No.  KWrite keeps an automatic backup, but I never use it.  As a result of 
your question, I have just run the automatic backup.  It runs fine.

> Were 
> you maybe editing the the file (and keeping it open in the editor) while
> running it from a command prompt every so often and did you maybe not save
> the change before running the script 

I did do that once or twice during the long saga, but immediately realised and 
saved the file before running again.  In fact, I think that it must sometimes 
have been saved multiple times because I was so afraid that I would do that.

> (so that there may have been a 
> discrepancy between the script on disk that was run by the interpreter and
> the script in your editor window)?

I can see nothing that could have caused it. :-(  Believe me, I thought of all 
the possibilities that have been mentioned so far and tried them out, with no 
joy.  The only thing that worked was inserting a space and then, at Alan's 
suggestion, removing it.  I am completely baffled.  There must have been 
something, but I cannot fathom what.  What difference does inserting a space 
and then deleting it make?????

At least this confirms that I took all the right debugging steps.  I think I 
just have to write it down as one of life's little mysteries.  If I can't 
uncover what happened with the files in front of me, clearly people who can 
see neither the screen nor the files have an impossible task!

I am very grateful for all the list's help.  I may have been left with the 
puzzle, but I have learnt a lot in the process of trying to debug the script.

Lisi