Debugger reports that variables are untyped...but they are

i have a couple of functions with this issue. here’s one of them:

debugger is complaining that a parameter is a local var and that it isn’t typed. the parameter is attribute

function code follows:

function settings ( attribute : string ) -> value : string
	// get url's, etc. from sandbox or production settings file

	var settingsFile : 4D.File
	var o : object
	var filename : string

	filename = "qbo" + this.environment + "Settings.json" // qboSandboxSettings.json or qboProductionSettings.json

	settingsFile = File ( "/PACKAGE/Project/Sources/Shared/" + filename )
	o = jsonParse ( settingsFile.getText() )
	value = o [ attribute ]

here’s a screenshot of it, in the code editor, with attribute selected, to show that the editor recognizes that it is in the declaration, and in the line in question (and doesn’t see any errors):

manually adding the various vars to the expression pane shows that they have values:

but… if i remove those from the expression pane, then select the variable, in the debugger, and add it to the expression pane, it says that the var is undefined:

at the end of all of that, the expected value is obtained, and passed.

with b4 out, i’m back to messing with q. this one makes every debugger drop more complicated