Question

After I upgraded Ubuntu my Python was changed to 2.6.6 and my app.py stopped working
when calling

sys.stdout.write(curses.tigetstr('civis'))

it writes:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "app.py", line 60, in <module>
    sys.stdout.write(curses.tigetstr('civis'))
TypeError: argument 1 must be string or read-only character buffer, not None

Should I change my code for newer version of Python?

Answer 1

Reading the documentation:

curses.tigetstr(capname)

Return the value of the string capability corresponding to the terminfo capability name capname. None is
returned if capname is not a string capability, or is canceled or
absent from the terminal description.

I take it the problem might be with the terminal description.
I am running python 2.7.2 on Ubuntu 11.10 and the following code does not raise any exception:

import sys
import curses
curses.setupterm()
sys.stdout.write(curses.tigetstr('civis'))

Does that work for you? If yes, your problem might have to do with some terminal setup prior to the call to curses.tigestr…