Python shell wont open idle or an exisiting py file

[Peter Otten]

rpucci2 at cox.net wrote:

> Python 3.3.3 (v3.3.3:c3896275c0f6, Nov 18 2013, 21:18:40) [MSC v.1600 32
> bit (Intel)] on win32 Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more
> information.
>>>> import idlelib.idle
> Exception in Tkinter callback
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 1475, in __call__
>     return self.func(*args)
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\idlelib\EditorWindow.py", line 927, in
>   open_recent_file
>     self.io.open(editFile=fn_closure)
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\idlelib\IOBinding.py", line 183, in open
>     flist.open(filename)
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\idlelib\FileList.py", line 36, in open
>     edit = self.EditorWindow(self, filename, key)
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 126, in __init__
>     EditorWindow.__init__(self, *args)
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\idlelib\EditorWindow.py", line 287, in __init__
>     if io.loadfile(filename):
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\idlelib\IOBinding.py", line 242, in loadfile
>     self.updaterecentfileslist(filename)
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\idlelib\IOBinding.py", line 523, in
>   updaterecentfileslist
>     self.editwin.update_recent_files_list(filename)
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\idlelib\EditorWindow.py", line 915, in
>   update_recent_files_list
>     menu.delete(0, END)  # clear, and rebuild:
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 2778, in delete
>     if 'command' in self.entryconfig(i):
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 2788, in entryconfigure
>     return self._configure(('entryconfigure', index), cnf, kw)
>   File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 1247, in _configure
>     self.tk.call(_flatten((self._w, cmd)))):
> UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xc0 in position 10:
> invalid start byte
> 
> This is the error message.

What happens if you rename

$HOME/.idlerc/recent-files.lst

(to an arbitrary name, just to keep it around for further debugging if the 
file indeed triggers the problem)?