    def _load_file(self, filename):
        try:
            # Try to load the file
            read_file = os.path.realpath(os.path.join(os.curdir, filename))
            with open(read_file, 'rb') as file:
                temp_program = ""
                for line in file:
                    temp_program += line.strip().replace(" ", "").replace("\n", "").replace("\r", "").replace("\t", "")

        except IOError:  # Catch the file load error and exit gracefully
            print "Cannot open file {}".format(filename)
            sys.exit(1)
        return self._parse_program(temp_program)