Python: Global Variables From Within Functions + Curses

I am being very, very confused...

Basically trying to declare a global variable pointing to a curses window so I can use a debug command how开发者_开发知识库ever it complains AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'addstr' which implies it is not being set? Please help!

wDebug = None

def start(stdscr):
    curses.nocbreak()
    curses.echo()
    screenSize = stdscr.getmaxyx()

    wDebug = curses.newwin(5, screenSize[1], 0, 0);

    curses.init_pair(1, curses.COLOR_WHITE, curses.COLOR_BLUE)

    wDebug.bkgd(curses.color_pair(1))
    wDebug.refresh()

    /* Snip */

    awaitInput(wInput)

    while 1: pass

def awaitInput(window): 
  while 1:
    msg = /* Snip */
    sendMessage(msg)

def sendMessage(msg):
  /* Snip */
  debug("Send message")

def debug(msg):
  wDebug.addstr(msg + "\n")
  wDebug.refresh()  

Many thanks for your time,

You need to use a global statement:

wDebug = None

def start(stdscr):
    global wDebug
    #...
    wDebug = curses.newwin(5, screenSize[1], 0, 0);

From the documentation:

It would be impossible to assign to a global variable without global