why I hate programming

pygoogle

Hmm, looks straighforward enough . . .

>>> import google
>>> google.LICENSE_KEY = '...' # must get your own!
>>> data = google.doGoogleSearch('python')
>>> data.meta.searchTime
0.043221000000000002
>>> dir(data.meta)
['directoryCategories', 'documentFiltering', 'endIndex', 'estimateIsExact',
'estimatedTotalResultsCount', 'searchComments', 'searchQuery', 'searchTime',
'searchTips', 'startIndex']
>>> data.results[0].URL
'http://www.python.org/'
>>> data.results[0].title
'Python Language Website'

Watch what happens when I do it.

[/home/paul]:: python
Python 2.2.1 (#1, Jul 27 2002, 20:59:26) 
[GCC 2.95.3 20010315 (release) [FreeBSD]] on freebsd4
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import google
>>> data = google.doGoogleSearch('python')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in ?
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.2/site-packages/google.py", line 311, in doGoogleSearch
    safeSearch, language, inputencoding, outputencoding)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.2/site-packages/SOAP.py", line 3619, in __r_call
    self.__hd, self.__ma)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.2/site-packages/SOAP.py", line 3539, in __call
    p, attrs = parseSOAPRPC(r, attrs = 1)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.2/site-packages/SOAP.py", line 2818, in parseSOAPRPC
    t = _parseSOAP(xml_str, rules = rules)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.2/site-packages/SOAP.py", line 2790, in _parseSOAP
    parser = xml.sax.make_parser()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.2/xml/sax/__init__.py", line 93, in make_parser
    raise SAXReaderNotAvailable("No parsers found", None)
xml.sax._exceptions.SAXReaderNotAvailable: No parsers found

When you can’t even get copied and pasted code to run, it’s time for bed. Or something.

Of course, I had to try it again, this time on OS X:

/Desktop/pygoogle]:: python
Python 2.2.1 (#1, 10/06/02, 09:00:29)
[GCC Apple cpp-precomp 6.14] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import google
>>> data=google.doGoogleSearch('paul beard seattle')
>>> data.results[0].URL
'http://www.tux.org/hypermail/linux-vortex/2000-Oct/0019.html'
>>> data.results[0].title
'3Com 3c59x/90x (Vortex/Boomerang) Linux Driver Development: [vo'

<sigh>