exceptions.SystemError: NULL result without error in call_objet

[Laurent Boulard]

I am an novice with Python (but not with C, C++ and java, windows and
unix platform).

I bought the book "Python: programming on Win32" and try the following
code to learn Python using COM:
-------------------------------------------------------------
# SimpleCOMServer.py - A sample COM server - almost as small as they
come !
#
# We expose a single method in a python COM object
class PythonUtilities:
    _public_methods_ = [ 'SplitString' ]
    _reg_progid_ = "PythonDemos.Utilities"
    # NEVER copy the following ID
    # Use "print pythoncom.Createguid()" to make a new one
    _reg_clsid_ = "{F900FA22-540A-11D5-8F3F-009027E99CD7}"

    def SplitString(self, val, item = None):
        import string
        print "Splitting " + val + " using " + item
        return string.split(val, item)

# Add code so that when this script is run by
# Python.exe, it self-registers.
if __name__=='__main__':
    print "Registering COM Server ..."
    import win32com.server.register
    win32com.server.register.UseCommandLine(PythonUtilities)
    
-------------------------------------------------------------

and the vb client part:

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sub TestPython()
'
' TestPython Macro
' Macro créée le 29/05/01 par BOULARD
'
Set PythonUtils = CreateObject("PythonDemos.utilities")
response = PythonUtils.SplitString("Hello from VB")
For Each Item In response
    MsgBox Item
Next
    
End Sub
-------------------------------------------------------------

if I register the COM server without debugging, everything works fine.
But if I register it with '--debug' then an error occurs in vb client
on the first line of code:

> Set PythonUtils = CreateObject("PythonDemos.utilities")

---------
Unexpected Python Error:exceptions.SystemError: NULL result without
error in call_object
---------

I'm using Python 2.1-final. Is it a bug in Python ?

Thanks for your help.