[Edu-sig] Python error messages

[Guido van Rossum]

> Anyway, the biggest problem the students seem to have when programming on
> their own, is to find their programming errors (bugs). And almost everyone
> has said that the error messages Python produces are cryptic. And I must
> agree, they are not that descriptive. So better error messages would be a
> very good way to make the learning process even easier, without
> compromising any compatibility with earlier code.

Mikael,

This is good information.  It would be even better if you could recall
and post some examples of code written by students that elicited
cryptic (in their eyes) error messages.  Do you have any examples?
Even if you have to reconstruct samples from memory it would be
helpful!

Others too -- if you see a poorly worded or otherwise undecipherable
(for a beginner) error coming from Python, let me know!

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

(Yes, I'm back.  Glad we're all still on speaking terms. :-)