bad_program=""" bla blub( bla blub""" print "compiling bad_program (len %d)"%len(bad_program) try: compile(bad_program,"","exec") except SyntaxError, e: print e.lineno, e.offset bad_program2=""" bla blub\"\"\" bla blub""" print "compiling bad_program2 (len %d)"%len(bad_program2) try: compile(bad_program2,"","exec") except SyntaxError, e: print e.lineno, e.offset