New submission from Steven D'Aprano <steve+pyt...@pearwood.info>:
A frequent newbie mistake is to call shell commands from inside the interactive interpreter. Most common is to call Python itself. Here is an example where a Python instructor was allegedly unable to diagnose the issue for their students: https://windowsquestions.com/2021/10/09/syntaxerror-invalid-syntax-perhaps-you-forgot-a-comma/ I think it would be a nice feature if the compiler recognised obvious cases of "user tried to call Python from the Python prompt", and suggested a fix. If the statement matches the regex r"python\s+" the error message might say "it looks like you are trying to run a shell command at the Python prompt" rather than suggest a missing comma. ---------- messages: 405764 nosy: steven.daprano priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Improve error message when python shell command is entered at the REPL prompt type: enhancement versions: Python 3.11 _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45721> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
