*** traceback.py.orig 
--- traceback.py 
***************
*** 156,161 ****
--- 156,165 ----
      about where the syntax error occurred.  The message indicating
      which exception occurred is the always last string in the list.
      """
+     # Ugly but minimal workaround for (deprecated) string exceptions,
+     # such as raise "exc", "value"
+     if type(etype) is type(value) is type(""):
+         return [etype + ": " + value + "\n"]
      list = []
      if (type(etype) == types.ClassType
          or (isinstance(etype, type) and issubclass(etype, BaseException))):