It appears it may not be a 'if' statment limitation at all. This is because I added another 800 element array in which to store the various error messages generated when a configuration file error is deteceted based on their severity level. The simple addition of the array caused the same symptom stated in the initial posting. This additional array was removed and the script performs as expected. Adding it back in cause it to not run - no error message - just a return to the >>> in the IDLE console window much as if I had executed the 'Check Module' command.
At this point I guess I'll find another way work around this issue via some of the previously suggested methods , etc. It appears to be a bug as far as I can tell. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
