These are two identical scripts... yet one is throwing an error? Is there some way to tell TestComplete what language each script is using? They should both be interpreted as Python!
For you second question, You can see your language in the bottom your Test Complete screen as like below,
Ah, how do you change that language then? I have it set to Java.
When you create a project, you're prompted for the language. That language persists for the project. While there are WAYS of changing that by manually editing the MDS file for the project, it's a bit of a pain in the butt to do so.
Your best bet is to create a new project and, when doing so, select "Python" as your scripting language. You'll either have a dialog that looks like this at that point:
Or like this, depending upon which of the two paths in the tool you go through for creating a project:
