title: Syntax error defining a simple function
body: <p>Why this simple function is not working in python 2.7?</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; def a(b,h):
  ...     return b*h/2
  ... a(3,4)
    File "&lt;stdin&gt;", line 3
      a(3,4)
      ^
  SyntaxError: invalid syntax
  &gt;&gt;&gt; 
  </code></pre>