[Idle-dev] Autocomplete Problems (was Re: IDLE Bugs_

[Terry Reedy]

This just showed up on the gmane mirror today.

On 1/14/2016 8:09 PM, Andrew Wells wrote:
> I'd like to preface this email with the statement that I absolutely love
> IDLE. I started learning python a few days ago and IDLE is a great tool
> for that great language.

Thanks for the positive feedback.

> I've got three bugs to report, and each of them pertains to the
> autocomplete function. For reference, I'm using a new MacBook Pro and
> the new OS X El Capitan. Upon opening, IDLE prints:
> Python 3.5.1 (v3.5.1:37a07cee5969 ...)
> [GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin

Thanks for mentioning the OS.  1. and 3. are probably OSX-specific 
problems with tcl/tk.  Did you upgrade from the Apple supplied tcl/tk, 
as recommended on https://www.python.org/download/mac/tcltk/ ?  If you 
have already done that, or if you still have any of these problems after 
doing so, please open an issue at bugs.python.org.

1.
> The first bug is not too important. When two IDLE windows are open, the
> autocomplete reference box appears on the shell window, whether or not I
> am currently typing in the shell or the text editing window. As I said,
> trivial.

I do not see this with Windows.  Such a gross error, must be OS and 
maybe even version specific.

2.
> The second is trivial and quite irritating. I'm used to being able to
> click on the autocomplete in order to accept it (i.e. I'm typing
> random.rand and click on the highlighted "randint" which appears below).

> I've come to realize that IDLE does not support this, which is perfectly
> acceptable.  However, when I click on it (which I do accidentally out of
> habit) the cursor disappears entirely and I cannot regain focus ...

https://bugs.python.org/issue15786
is about problems with clicking on completion box.  No need to report 
this, but you can add a comment to the issue if you want.

For me, the box disappears, the cursor remains.

3.
> The last is more serious but easy to avoid. I have a secondary monitor
> which I connect to my laptop via HDMI. With a little experimentation,
> I've discovered that IDLE crashes when it tries to display the
> autocorrect reference box in the second monitor.

This is likely a tcl/tk problem with the OS.  Run Python 3.5 from the 
console/terminal with 'python3 -m idlelib' and you may see an error 
message there after the crash.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy