change syntax coloring in IDLE

[Ned Deily]

In article 
<77e831100901270950i6b0b510chf80a495a65ca9833 at mail.gmail.com>,
 Vincent Davis <vincent at vincentdavis.net> wrote:
> I am using mac with python 2.5.2 and IDLE verison 1.2.2. in the help it
> states I can change he text coloring by using "Configure IDLE" but I not
> sure what this is. It's not sn the menu, running Configure does nothing. How
> do I change the color (text and background)

There is supposed to be a Preferences menu option for IDLE on OS X but, 
depending on the Python version and how IDLE is launched, it may or may 
not appear due to various bugs.  (I'm working on some patches for these.)

If you have been launching IDLE via /Applications/MacPython 
2.5/IDLE.app, try launching it via the shell command line:  
/usr/local/bin/idle2.5.  There may now be a working Preferences menu 
item under the Python item in the menu bar; there may also be an Options 
-> Configure IDLE... .   If that doesn't work, it should be possible to 
copy the default def files from idlelib in the python installation to 
your .idlerc directory and manually edit them there - ugh!.  Something 
like:

$ cd `python2.5 -c 'import sys; print sys.prefix'`
$ cd lib/python2.5/idlelib
$ ls *.def
config-extensions.def config-highlight.def  config-keys.def       
config-main.def
$ cp -i *.def ~/.idlerc
$ cd ~/.idlerc
$ vi ...

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org