IDLE and tkinter with Tcl/Tk on Mac OS X

Important

If you are using Mac OS X 10.8, 10.7 or 10.6, use IDLE or tkinter from a 64-bit/32-bit Python installer only with ActiveTcl 8.5 installed. If you cannot install ActiveTcl 8.5, use a 32-bit-only installer instead.

If you are using Mac OS X 10.6, do not use IDLE or Tkinter from the Apple-supplied Python 2.6.1 in Mac OS X 10.6. If possible, install and use a newer version of Python and of Tcl/Tk.

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
3.3.1	64-/32-bit	10.8	ActiveTcl 8.5.13	Apple 8.5.9
		10.7	ActiveTcl 8.5.13	Apple 8.5.9
		10.6	ActiveTcl 8.5.13		Apple 8.5.7
	32-bit-only	10.5	ActiveTcl 8.4.19	Apple 8.4.7
2.7.4	64-/32-bit	10.8	ActiveTcl 8.5.13	Apple 8.5.9
		10.7	ActiveTcl 8.5.13	Apple 8.5.9
		10.6	ActiveTcl 8.5.13		Apple 8.5.7
	32-bit-only	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
3.2.4	64-/32-bit	10.8	ActiveTcl 8.5.13	Apple 8.5.9
		10.7	ActiveTcl 8.5.13	Apple 8.5.9
		10.6	ActiveTcl 8.5.13		Apple 8.5.7
	32-bit-only	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 releases 10.4 through 10.8 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. As of 8.5.13, the Tk project no longer supports Carbon builds of Tk 8.5.
Aqua Cocoa Tk: A newer, somewhat experimental native implementation available as a universal 64-bit and 32-bit binary. This variant is the standard OS X variant in Tk 8.6. Aqua Cocoa support has been backported to Tk 8.5 and released by Apple starting with Mac OS X 10.6 and by ActiveState starting with their 8.5.9.1 release. Python installers downloadable from this website do not support Tk 8.6 on OS X.
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. The Python 64-bit/32-bit Mac OS X installers for Python 3.3.x, 3.2.x, and 2.7.x dynamically link to Tcl/Tk 8.5 frameworks. 32-bit-only 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.)

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. The 64-bit/32-bit Mac OS X installers for Python 3.3.x, 3.2.x, and 2.7.x 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 8.5.13 releases discussed below are compatible with these installers. The 32-bit-only Python installers for Mac OS X from this web site are built with Intel-32 (i386) and PowerPC-32 (ppc) architectures and are compatible with all current releases of Apple 8.4.x and ActiveTcl 8.4.x. Starting with Python 3.3.0, the minimum deployment target for 32-bit-only installers is Mac OS X 10.5; for earlier releases, it is Mac OS X 10.3.9.

Tcl/Tk Releases

ActiveTcl 8.5.13

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. This version of Tcl/Tk includes fixes for some critical problems that you may encounter using tkinter or IDLE (see Apple 8.5.9 below). 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 Cocoa Tk.

There were two known serious problems introduced in the previous ActivelTcl 8.5 releases for Mac OS X, 8.5.12 and 8.5.12.1. These problems are resolved by updating to ActivelTcl 8.5.13 and the most recent releases of Python: 3.3.1, 2.7.4, and 3.2.4. See Issues -#15574 and -#15853 for more information.

Apple 8.5.9

This release is included in Mac OS X 10.8 and 10.7. As of this writing, Mac OS X 10.8.2 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.) There is also the more general problem of input manager support for composite characters (Tk bug 3205153) which has also been fixed in more recent ActiveState 8.5 releases. Until and if the fixes for these problems are released in an update for Apple 8.5.9 in OS X 10.8 or 10.7, we recommend using ActiveTcl 8.5 where possible. This is an Aqua Cocoa Tk.

Apple 8.5.7

This release is included in Mac OS X 10.6. 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. Because of this, we strongly recommend that you do not attempt to use Tkinter or IDLE with the Apple-supplied Python 2.6.1 in 10.6. Instead, install a newer version of Python that supports a newer version of Tk, such as ActiveTcl 8.5. 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 10.8, 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

2013-04-06 - updated for 3.3.1, 2.7.4, and 3.2.4
2012-12-26 - updated for ActiveTcl 8.5.13 and Issue 15853 patch installer
2012-09-29 - updated for 3.3.0 final and reverted to ActiveTcl 8.5.11.1
2012-08-02 - updated for ActiveTcl 8.5.12
2012-07-28 - updated for OS X 10.8
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

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