Bug 108649 – Portions of reportlab 1.18 throw SyntaxError on import in Python 2.4

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Stephan Sokolow 2005-10-09 13:03:21 UTC]

As of Python 2.4, you can no longer assign to None. This breaks some portions of
reportlab 1.18 which use assignment to None as a method of discarding unneeded
values while unpacking tuples. This problem prevents the modules in question
from being imported.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open python 2.4
2. Type "import reportlab.graphics.charts.legends" or "import
reportlab.platypus.doctemplate"


Actual Results:  
>>> import reportlab.graphics.charts.legends
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/reportlab/graphics/charts/legends.py",
line 112
    for None, name in colorNamePairs:
SyntaxError: assignment to None

>>> import reportlab.platypus.doctemplate
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/reportlab/platypus/__init__.py", line
13, in ?
    from reportlab.platypus.doctemplate import BaseDocTemplate,
NextPageTemplate, PageTemplate, ActionFlowable, \
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/reportlab/platypus/doctemplate.py",
line 108
    t, v, None = sys.exc_info()
SyntaxError: assignment to None


Expected Results:  
It should throw no errors and prompt for the next line.

Simply changing the broken lines to assign to a throwaway variable instead of
None will fix this problem.

[Comment 1 Bryan Østergaard (RETIRED) 2005-10-11 16:32:55 UTC]

Stable bumped to 1.20 on x86 which fixes this problem. Thanks for reporting.