[FIXED] Re: Can't get tilde character with IDLE 3.2.2 on French Mac Lion

[Ned Deily]

A followup to a thread in 2011-12.

In article <nad-D24D39.01420521122011 at news.gmane.org>,
 Ned Deily <nad at acm.org> wrote:
> In article <franck-FC679D.13562020122011 at news.free.fr>,
>  Franck Ditter <franck at ditter.org> wrote:
> > In article <mailman.3825.1324322364.27778.python-list at python.org>,
> >  Ned Deily <nad at acm.org> wrote:
> > > In article <franck-6EFD3C.10155219122011 at news.free.fr>,
> > >  Franck Ditter <franck at ditter.org> wrote:
> > > > All is in the subject. I'm starting to use Python with Idle 3.2.2
> > > > on MacOS-X Lion (French). I can't get "Option-N space" to provide 
> > > > the ~ char.
> > > > I tried to go into the Keys preferences but I can't find "Option-N 
> > > > space"
> > > > to modify its meaning. Its actual behavior is to merge lines of a 
> > > > paragraph.
> > > You are likely running into a current problem in the OS X Cocoa version 
> > > of Tcl/Tk 8.5 as included with Lion and as shipped by ActiveState.  
> > > Previously, if you tried to type composite characters, like Option N, 
> > > the Cocoa Tcl/Tk would crash.  Pending a real fix, a patch was made to 
> > > Tcl/Tk 8.5 to discard composite characters rather than crash.  You 
> > > should be able to get a tilde by using the post-composite keyboard 
> > > sequence:  try typing "space" followed by "Shift-Option-N".
> > > 
> > > http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2907388&group_id=
> > > 12
> > > 997&atid=112997
> > Nope, "space" followed by "Shift-Option-N" gives a greek iota...
> > I tried other combinations, unsuccessfully.
> > IDLE 3 (French) seems to be unusable as we use many ~ in web applications 
> > :-(
> > Should we hope a fix soon, or leave IDLE ?
> 
> Yes, I see now that that won't work with the French input method.  
> Unfortunately, there is nothing that IDLE or Python can do to workaround 
> the issue as the problem is in Cocoa Tcl/Tk and I don't know that any 
> fix is being worked on.

Good news!  A fix for Cocoa Tcl/Tk 8.5 for improved handling of Mac OS X 
input methods was recently applied and has now been released in the 
latest ActiveState Tcl release (8.5.11.1) available here:

    http://www.activestate.com/activetcl/downloads

It appears to fix the tilde problem and other similar problems with 
composite characters, like Option-U + vowel to form "umlauted" vowels in 
the U.S. input method.  Many thanks to Adrian Robert, Kevin Walzer, and 
the ActiveState team for addressing this nasty problem.

If you install ActiveState Tcl 8.5.x, it will automatically be used by 
the python.org 2.7.x, 3.2.x, and 3.3.x 64-bit/32-bit Pythons for OS X 
10.6 and 10.7.  It will *not* be used by the Apple-supplied system 
Pythons or by 32-bit-only python.org Pythons.   More details here:

    http://www.python.org/download/mac/tcltk/

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org