title: where is the call to encode the string or force the string to need to be encoded in this file?
body: <p>I know this may seem rude or mean or unpolite, but I need some help to try to figure out why I cant call <code>window.loadPvmFile("f:\games@DD.ATC3.Root\common\models\a300\amu\dummy.pvm")</code> exactly like that as a string. Instead of doing that, it gives me a traceback error: </p>
  
  <pre><code>Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "F:\Python Apps\pvmViewer_v1_1.py", line 415, in &lt;module&gt;
          window.loadPvmFile("f:\games\@DD.ATC3.Root\common\models\a300\amu\dummy.pvm")
      File "F:\Python Apps\pvmViewer_v1_1.py", line 392, in loadPvmFile
          file1 = open(path, "rb")
  IOError: [Errno 22] invalid mode ('rb') or filename:
  'f:\\games\\@DD.ATC3.Root\\common\\models\x07300\x07mu\\dummy.pvm'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Also notice, that in the traceback error, the file path is different. When I try a path that has no letters in it except for the drive letter and filename, it throws this error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>    Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "F:\Python Apps\pvmViewer_v1_1.py", line 416, in &lt;module&gt;
      loadPvmFile('f:\0\0\dummy.pvm')
  File "F:\Python Apps\pvmViewer_v1_1.py", line 393, in loadPvmFile
      file1 = open(path, "r")
  TypeError: file() argument 1 must be encoded string without NULL bytes, not str
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have searched for the place that the encode function is called or where the argument is encoded and cant find it. Flat out, I am out of ideas, frustrated and I have nowhere else to go. The source code can be found here: <a href="http://codeviewer.org/view/code:2660" rel="nofollow">PVM VIEWER</a></p>
  
  <p>Also note that you will not be able to run this code and load a pvm file and that I am using portable python 2.7.3! Thanks for everyone's time and effort!</p>