[issue37391] MacOS Touchpad scrolling crashes IDLE

[Ned Deily]

Ned Deily <nad at python.org> added the comment:

> Does IDLE every run long enough with Apple's tk before failure to make continuing useful?

Yes, depending on what you are doing, IDLE *may* run just fine with the system Tk.  But you may may run into this issue depending on how you scroll.  Or, among the worst bugs, if you try to type in characters not directly available on the keyboard by using one of the available composition characters, like opt-u followed by a vowel to produced an "umlauted" vowel with the US keyboard layout, Tk will immediately crash taking IDLE with it and with no opportunity to save any work in progress.  Many people will not run into those bugs but it can be very painful to those who do.

> Any comments here before I open a new issue?

I don't think changing the message is going to make much of a difference.  There isn't much an end user can do other to avoid the known behaviors that cause problems, install another version of Python (which may not be an option for many novice users), or not use IDLE.  Back when we did not ship our own copy of Tcl/Tk with the python.org macOS installers, there *was* something else you might be able to do: install a more up-to-date third-party Tcl/Tk that would then be automatically used. But that's not longer an option nor is it needed.

I think the best thing we can do is help make it easier for people building Python to not link with the broken system Python and improve the using Python on macOS documentation.  I have issues opened for both of those.

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue37391>
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