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IDLE and tkinter with Tcl/Tk on Mac OS X

Important

Only use IDLE or tkinter from the Python 3.2.3 64-bit/32-bit installer on Mac OS X 10.6 if you also have ActiveTcl 8.5 installed. If you cannot install ActiveTcl 8.5, use the 3.2.3 32-bit-only installer instead.

Only use IDLE or Tkinter from the Python 2.7.3 64-bit/32-bit installer on Mac OS X 10.6 if you also have ActiveTcl 8.5 installed. If you cannot install ActiveTcl 8.5, use the 2.7.3 32-bit-only installer instead.

Do not use IDLE or Tkinter from the Apple-supplied Python 2.6.1 in Mac OS X 10.6. If possible, use one of the Python 2.7.3 installers instead; otherwise, install a newer version of Python 2.6.

Read the details below.

Python's integrated development environment, IDLE, and the tkinter GUI toolkit it uses, depend on the Tk GUI toolkit which is not part of Python itself. For best results, it is important that the proper release of Tcl/Tk is installed on your machine. For recent Python installers for Mac OS X downloadable from this website, here is a summary of current recommendations followed by more detailed information.

Python Release Installer Variant Mac OS X Release Recommended Tcl/Tk Alternate Tcl/Tk Not Recommended
3.2.3 64-/32-bit 10.7 ActiveTcl 8.5.11 Apple 8.5.9  
10.6 ActiveTcl 8.5.11   Apple 8.5.7
32-bit 10.6 ActiveTcl 8.4.19 Apple 8.4.19  
10.5 ActiveTcl 8.4.19 Apple 8.4.7  
10.4 ActiveTcl 8.4.19 Apple 8.4.7  
10.3.9 ActiveTcl 8.4.19    
2.7.3 64-/32-bit 10.7 ActiveTcl 8.5.11 Apple 8.5.9  
10.6 ActiveTcl 8.5.11   Apple 8.5.7
32-bit 10.6 ActiveTcl 8.4.19 Apple 8.4.19  
10.5 ActiveTcl 8.4.19 Apple 8.4.7  
10.4 ActiveTcl 8.4.19 Apple 8.4.7  
10.3.9 ActiveTcl 8.4.19    

Tk On Mac OS X

There are currently three major variants of Tk in common use on Mac OS X:

Aqua Carbon Tk
This has been the most common native version on Mac OS X. Because is is implemented with older Mac OS X Carbon interfaces, it is only available as a 32-bit binary (usually for Intel and PowerPC processors). Aqua Carbon Tk 8.4 is included with Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7 and is also available from ActiveState. Aqua Carbon variants of Tk 8.5 had been available as an ActiveState Community Download prior to ActiveTcl 8.5.9.
Aqua Cocoa Tk
A newer, somewhat experimental native implementation available as a universal 64-bit and 32-bit binary. This variant is expected to be the standard OS X variant in Tk 8.6. Aqua Cocoa support has been backported to Tk 8.5 and released by both Apple in Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7 and by ActiveState starting with their 8.5.9.1 release.
X11 Tk
The traditional platform-independent UNIX Tk implementation which requires an X11 server, such as the Apple X11.app available as an optional component in all recent Mac OS X releases. 64-bit and 32-bit binaries can be built. While the Python installers downloadable from this website do not support X11 Tk, other distributors of Python for Mac OS X may do so.

Note

In this document the terms Tcl/Tk and Tk are used interchangeably. Keep in mind that while Tcl and Tk are separate frameworks and libraries, they are closely related and are generally installed or updated simultaneously. You should not attempt to mix-and-match Tcl and Tk versions. References to a specific version of Tk assume the corresponding version of Tcl is installed as well

How Python Chooses Which Tk Release To Use

The Python for Mac OS X installers downloaded from this website dynamically link at runtime to Tcl/Tk Mac OS X frameworks. The Tcl/Tk major version is determined when the installer is created and cannot be overridden. As of this writing, the Python 3.2.x 64-bit/32-bit and 2.7.x 64-bit/32-bit Mac OS X installers dynamically link to Tcl/Tk 8.5 frameworks. All other Python installers for Mac OS X dynamically link to Tcl/Tk 8.4 frameworks.

In either case, the dynamically linking occurs when tkinter (Python 3) or Tkinter (Python 2) is first imported (specifically, the internal _tkinter C extension module). By default, the Mac OS X dynamic linker looks first in /Library/Frameworks for Tcl and Tk frameworks with the proper major version. This is the standard location for third-party or built from source frameworks, including the ActiveTcl releases. If frameworks of the proper major version are not found there, the dynamic linker looks for the same version in /System/Library/Frameworks, the location for Apple-supplied frameworks shipped with Mac OS X. (Note, you should normally not modify or delete files in /System/Library.)

Warning

This search order does not apply to the Python 2.7.1 Mac OS X 64-bit/32-bit x86-64/i386 installer for Mac OS X 10.6. This installer was built and released before ActiveState Tcl 8.5.9 was available so this version of Python links only with the Apple 8.5.7 released with Mac OS X 10.6. As noted below, IDLE is known to hang or crash when using this combination. Python 2.7.1 is no longer current or supported. Use a newer Python 2.7.x installer instead. (This warning also applies to the IDLE and Tkinter in the Apple-supplied Python 2.6.1 shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.)

As is common on Mac OS X, the installed Pythons and the Tcl and Tk frameworks are built to run on multiple CPU architectures (universal binaries) and across multiple Mac OS X levels (minimum deployment target). For Python to be able to dynamically link with a particular Tcl and Tk version, the available architectures in the Tcl/Tk frameworks must include the architecture that Python is running in and their minimum deployment target should be no greater than that of Python. As of this writing, the Python 3.2.x 64-bit/32-bit and 2.7.x 64-bit/32-bit Mac OS X installers are built with Intel-64 (x86_64) and Intel-32 (i386) architectures and a minimum deployment target of Mac OS X 10.6. The Apple 8.5.9 and ActiveTcl 8.5.11 releases discussed below are compatible with these installers. All other current Python installers for Mac OS X from this web site are built with Intel-32 (i386) and PowerPC-32 (ppc) architectures with a minimum deployment target of Mac OS X 10.3.9 and are compatible with all current releases of Apple 8.4.x and ActiveTcl 8.4.x.

Tcl/Tk Releases

ActiveTcl 8.5.11

ActiveState provides binary distributions of Tcl/Tk which are upward compatible with and generally more up-to-date than those provided by Apple in Mac OS X releases. You can download an installer for this release from the ActiveState web site. Note that ActiveState Community Edition binaries are not open source and are covered by an ActiveState license. You should read the license before downloading to verify that your usage complies with its terms of use.

Make sure that you are using the most recent release which, as of this writing, is 8.5.11.1 (released 2012-02-27). This is an Aqua Cocoa Tk.

Apple 8.5.9

This release is included in Mac OS X 10.7. As of this writing, Mac OS X 10.7.3 is current and there are at least two known issues with Tk 8.5.9 that are present in Apple 8.5.9 Tk but fixed in the most recent 8.5 release from ActiveState. The more serious problem is an immediate crash in Tk when entering a composition character, like Option-u on a US keyboard. (This problem is documented as Tk bug 2907388.) Until and if the fix for this problem is released in an update for Apple 8.5.9 in OS X 10.7, we recommend using ActiveTcl 8.5.11 where possible. This is an Aqua Cocoa Tk.

Apple 8.5.7

This release is included in Mac OS X 10.6. As of this writing, Mac OS X 10.6.8 is current and IDLE is known to hang or crash when used with the Apple 8.5.7 included in all versions of Mac OS X 10.6.x up to now. We strongly recommend that you do not attempt to use it with Python! If possible, install ActiveTcl 8.5.11 but see the warning above about Python 2.7.1 and the Apple-supplied Python 2.6.1. This is an Aqua Cocoa Tk.

ActiveTcl 8.4.19

ActiveState provides binary distributions of Tcl/Tk which are upward compatible with and generally more up-to-date than those provided by Apple in Mac OS X releases. You can download an installer for this release from the ActiveState web site. Note that ActiveState Community Edition binaries are not open source and are covered by an ActiveState license. You should read the license before downloading to verify that your usage complies with its terms of use. This is an Aqua Carbon Tk.

Apple 8.4.19

This release is included in Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.6. This is an Aqua Carbon Tk.

Apple 8.4.7

This release is included in Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.4. This is an Aqua Carbon Tk.

Revision history

  • 2012-04-11 - updated for 3.2.3 final and 2.7.3 final
  • 2012-03-18 - updated for 3.2.3rc2 and 2.7.3rc2
  • 2012-03-04 - updated for ActiveTcl 8.5.11.1, 3.2.3rc1, 2.7.3rc1, removed 3.1.4
  • 2011-11-12 - updated for ActiveTcl 8.5.11
  • 2011-09-04 - updated for 3.2.2 final
  • 2011-07-21 - updated for OS X 10.7 and ActiveTcl 8.5.10.1
  • 2011-07-09 - updated for 3.2.1 final and ActiveTcl 8.5.10
  • 2011-06-12 - updated for 2.7.2 final and 3.1.4 final
  • 2011-05-30 - updated for 3.2.1rc, 2.7.2rc, and 3.1.4rc
  • 2011-03-08 - add warnings and include details on how Python links with Tcl/Tk releases
  • 2011-02-20 - updated for 3.2 final
  • 2011-01-31 draft 1 - preliminary info for 3.2rc2
  • 2011-01-14 draft 0