Question

I read through Add to python path mac os x and I figured doing that is a good idea, but still IDLE gives me a syntax error for a simple call of open(filename, mode), so I looked a little bit further and I found that I am able to do as stated in http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#qa/qa1067/_index.html and set up an environment.plist in a .MacOSX folder, so I did that in my home dir and still no changes … I am now lost 🙂

Thats what I added as my python-path in .bash_profile and the same path in my environment.plist (without the :$PYTHONPATH):

PYTHONPATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7:$PYTHONPATH"
export PYTHONPATH

EDIT:
Thats where I get the syntax-Error… works fine in the interpreter

import xml.etree.ElementTree as et 
import json

app = Bottle()

@app.route('/proPass', method ='POST')

#here happens here, need it further down in the code... which is not really relevant 
f = open('/Users/mohi/Desktop/proPass_project/server_service/systems.xml', 'rw')

def getData():
    timestamp = request.POST.get('timestamp', '').strip()
    data = request.POST.get('data', '').strip()

    if timestamp:
        processData(data, timestamp)
run()

The error:

    File "proPass_script.py", line 9
    f = open('/Users/mohi/Desktop/proPass_project/server_service/systems.xml', 'rw')
    ^
    SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Answer 1

PYTHONPATH doesn’t effect whether or not you get a SyntaxError — only an ImportError. So, if you’re getting a SyntaxError, you’ve got another problem with your code. Please post the code and we’ll point it out.

Edit: Your error is on this line:

@app.route('/proPass', method ='POST')

The @ designates a decorator, which is only valid on the line immediately before a function definition (def), a class definition (class), or another decorator.

It shows the error on the first character of the open line because it’s expecting a function or class definition there.

See the docs for function definitions for more info on decorators.