Curses returning AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'initscr'

Question

I am following the Curses programming HowTo on the Python site, but I am running into a rather bizarre issue.

My code is currently very short, doesn't actually do anything because of this error, I haven't been able to move on. Here's my code:

import curses
#from curses import wrapper

stdscr = curses.initscr()
curses.noecho()
curses.cbreak()

stdscr.keypad(True)

def main(stdscr):

    begin_x = 20; begin_y = 7
    height = 5; width = 40
    win = curses.newwin(height, width, begin_y, begin_x)

    stdscr.refresh()
    stdscr.getkey()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    wrapper(main)

and the Traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "curses.py", line 1, in <module>
    import curses
  File "/home/nate/Documents/Programming/Python/curses.py", line 4, in <module>
    stdscr = curses.initscr()
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'initscr'

I commented out the from curses import wrapper because that was giving me another error,

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "curses.py", line 1, in <module>
    import curses
  File "/home/nate/Documents/Programming/Python/curses.py", line 2, in <module>
    from curses import wrapper
ImportError: cannot import name wrapper

but I suppose that would be another question.

I am following the tutorial word for word right now, to learn curses, but currently the only thing it's making me do is use curses directed at Python :P.

I am running Python 3.3.2 on Ubuntu 13.10, so this question has nothing to do with this, as he was using Windows and I am not (thankfully :D)

Why am I not able to do this? I'm copying it directly from the Python site, so you'd think it would work!

score 65 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 22 '14 at 13:58

65

You named your file curses.py, so Python thinks that file is the curses module. Name it something else.

answered Feb 22 '14 at 13:58

user2357112

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Oh of course...I can't believe I did that :P Thanks :D – RPiAwesomeness Feb 22 '14 at 22:10
5

If the error persists, check for a `curses.pyc` file in the same folder, and delete it. – Jack M Apr 26 '14 at 08:03

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 02 '15 at 14:53

3

mv curses.py someOtherName.py

If you get the same error, try removing any .pyc files.

In this case it would be rm curses.pyc.

edited Aug 02 '15 at 14:53

RPiAwesomeness

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answered Aug 01 '15 at 10:37

chandan

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Thanks for the answer, but this is essentially a duplicate of the one above. :) – RPiAwesomeness Aug 01 '15 at 21:42
1

kind of, but one may forget to remove the .pyc file .. in that case same error comes – chandan Aug 02 '15 at 11:42
That is true. I was thinking you should have made this a comment, but you can't do that until you've got 50 rep. – RPiAwesomeness Aug 02 '15 at 14:19

Curses returning AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'initscr'

2 Answers2