Words counting for LaTeX files (Python, bash)

wclatex.py

#!/usr/bin/python
# A minimal script that counts the number of words in a LaTeX file.
# Example of use:
#     localhost@name$ wclatex filename

import re
import sys


def word_counter(filename):
    try:
        fp = open(filename, 'r')
    except IOError:
        print 'File does not exist!'
    else:
        lines = fp.readlines()

        latex_pattern = re.compile('^[\\\\]|^[$]|[=]|[-]|[+]|\w\(')
        w_space_pattern = re.compile('\s')

        sp, word, latex_word = 0, 0, 0

        for i in lines:
            buf = i.split(" ")
            for j in range(len(buf)):
                if latex_pattern.match(buf[j]):
                    latex_word += 1
                elif w_space_pattern.match(buf[j]):
                    sp += 1
                else:
                    word += 1
        return word


if __name__ == '__main__':
    if len(sys.argv) == 2:
        print word_counter(sys.argv[1])
    else:
        print 'Use >> python wclatex filename'