Can't get tilde character with IDLE 3.2.2 on French Mac Lion

[Ned Deily]

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.

One approach that *might* work is to create a modified French keyboard 
layout that substitutes tilde for some other key combination without 
using a dead key (Option-N is a dead key).  Ukelele.app seems to be the 
most frequently recommended keyboard layout editor for OS X and comes 
with extensive documentation.  I don't have time right now to experiment 
with it but I would be interested to hear if someone is able to make it 
work.

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ukelele

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org