polymorphic read

#quote from MIT 'introduction to computation and programming using python, Revised' 
def readVal(valType, requestMsg, errorMsg):
    while True:
        val = raw_input(requestMsg + ' ')
        try:
            val = valType(val)
            return val
        except ValueError:
            print val, errorMsg
            
n = readVal(int, 'Enter an integer:', 'is not an integer.')
print n

%run "C:\Users\Administrator\test.py"


Enter an integer: hello
hello is not an integer.


Enter an integer: 12.99
12.99 is not an integer.


Enter an integer: 34
34