python newbie having strangeness

[Joe F. Blow]

The program below has been acting very weird. Last night it complained
that I was referencing X in getline() before defining it. Of course I
wasn't, as X is a global.

This morning I ran the exact same code again and now it says,
"NameError: name 'convert' is not defined". HUH????? Of course it's
defined!

What am I doing wrong? Any ideas? I'm using pythonwin and python2.3 on
windoze xp.

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

x=1
count=binlist=0

#get s19 file in list named "line"
inp=file("c:\\download\\electron\\68hc11\\a code\\tankbot2.s19","r")
line = inp.read()
inp.close()

if line[x]=="0":            #is command char a "0"?
    dig1=line[x+1]          #yes, get line length
    dig2=line[x+2]
    a=convert(dig1,dig2)
    x=x+((a*2)+5)           #point to command char of next line

if line[x]=="1":
    getline()
print binlist

def getline():
    global count
    global x
    global line
    global binlist
    dig1=line[x+1]
    dig2=line[x+2]
    a=convert(dig1,dig2)
    x+=2
    e=x
    for e in range(e,e+a,2):
        dig1=line[e+1]
        dig2=line[e+2]
        binlist[count]=convert(dig1,dig2)
        count+=1

#convert ascii hex digits x & y to an integer
def convert(x,y):
    a=int(x)
    b=int(y)
    a=a<<4
    a=a+b
    return(a)