I got "global flags not at the start of the expression at position 399 (line 7, column 33)" error while using Nengo

Getting Started
1

Hey everyone, I am new to using Nengo, and after installing the nengo using ‘pip install nengo nengo-gui’, I gave command ‘nengo’ in the terminal to get started with using nengo, but I got this error saying :

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 198, in run_module_as_main
File “”, line 88, in run_code
File "C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Scripts\nengo.exe_main.py", line 4, in
File "C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui_init.py", line 1, in
from .gui import GUI, InteractiveGUI
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui\gui.py”, line 21, in
from nengo_gui.guibackend import GuiServer
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui\guibackend.py”, line 25, in
import nengo_gui.page
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui\page.py”, line 14, in
import nengo_gui.config
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui\config.py”, line 4, in
import nengo_gui.components
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui\components_init_.py”, line 10, in
from .sim_control import SimControl
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui\components\sim_control.py”, line 10, in
from nengo_gui.server import WebSocketFrame
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui\server.py”, line 31, in
from nengo_gui.vendor.cookies import Cookies
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui_vendor\cookies.py”, line 111, in
class Definitions(object):
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\nengo_gui_vendor\cookies.py”, line 313, in Definitions
ATTR_RE = re.compile(ATTR)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_init.py", line 227, in compile
return compile(pattern, flags)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_init.py", line 294, in _compile
p = _compiler.compile(pattern, flags)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_compiler.py”, line 743, in compile
p = _parser.parse(p, flags)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_parser.py”, line 980, in parse
p = _parse_sub(source, state, flags & SRE_FLAG_VERBOSE, 0)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_parser.py”, line 455, in _parse_sub
itemsappend(_parse(source, state, verbose, nested + 1,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_parser.py”, line 863, in _parse
p = _parse_sub(source, state, sub_verbose, nested + 1)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_parser.py”, line 455, in _parse_sub
itemsappend(_parse(source, state, verbose, nested + 1,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_parser.py”, line 863, in _parse
p = _parse_sub(source, state, sub_verbose, nested + 1)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_parser.py”, line 455, in _parse_sub
itemsappend(_parse(source, state, verbose, nested + 1,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\srbha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\re_parser.py”, line 841, in _parse
raise source.error('global flags not at the start ’
re.error: global flags not at the start of the expression at position 399 (line 7, column 33)

2

Try an earlier version of python (e.g. 3.10). I’m seeing this in a clean 3.11 environment, but not in my 3.10 environment.

3

At first when I got the error, I had the 3.10 version. I thought the error was probably because of older version and upgraded python, but the error persisted.

4

And the stack trace is identical for the 3.10 error? Can you post it here?

It looks like you’re not currently using conda, which I would highly recommend when you’re trying to set up environments that are dependent on specific Python versions. I’d recommend setting up a 3.10 environment through conda to make sure you’re really using 3.10.

As I said, I’m not seeing this in 3.10, and other places I’ve seen this error online it also appears to be related to 3.11.

5

When are you planning to support Python 3.11?

6

I have the same problem: nengo-gui is currently not supported by Python3.11
I would like to use the gui now in order to make some model architecture pics for a publication.
Please update the nengo-gui :))

Kind regards
Bernd

7

I get the same error message, regardless of whether I use earlier versions of python. I tried with 3.9.2 and 3.6.2.

I switched versions in Anaconda Powershell using Pyenv.

Best,
Jasper