No matter what I do, IDLE will not work...

[CAMERON ALLEY]

On Nov 10, 7:27 pm, Ned Deily <n... at acm.org> wrote:
> That's an odd one; I've not seen a crash like that before.  From the
> crash dump, it is clear that the crash is happening inside of Tk, not
> Python, and, judging from the symbol names, it has something to do with
> menu initialization and colors.
>
> Try running the same Turtle test using the Apple-supplied Python 2.6
>
>   /usr/bin/python2.6
>
> The Apple-supplied Tcl/Tk that it uses is known to have a number of
> serious problems and should not be used for serious work but, for me, it
> will bring up the turtle window in Tk without crashing.  If it crashes
> the same way that 2.7.2 does, then that would be pretty solid
> corroboration that the problem is not in Python and more likely an issue
> with Tk.
>
> My first question would be do you have some third-party OS X app or
> extension installed that alters or colors menus?  I know there used to
> be some popular ones out there in the past.  If not, try opening System
> Preferences, select Displays, select Color, and check which display
> profile is selected.  Perhaps try selecting another.  And are you using
> a specific language in System Preferences -> Languages & Text ->
> Language?
>
> If that doesn't help, try running the following commands in a terminal
> window:
>
>   source /Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.5/tkConfig.sh
>   echo $TK_VERSION $TK_PATCH_LEVEL
>
> You should see something like:
>
>   8.5 .11
>
> If not, double check that you really are using the latest ActiveState
> Tcl/Tk 8.5 installer from here:
>
>  http://www.activestate.com/activetcl/downloads
>
> Then try the failing turtle commads again and in the crash report,
> verify that  /Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.5/ appear as
> framework paths and *not*
> /System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.5/.
>
> Try the following command which may not work if you don't have Xcode
> tools installed:
>
>   otool -L $(python2.7 -c 'import _tkinter; print(_tkinter.__file__)')
>
> The paths reported again should start with
> /Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework and not
> /System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework.
>
> If none of that works, you could try installing the other python.org
> 2.7.2 installer, the 32-bit-only one, which is linked to the older
> Tcl/Tk 8.4, which uses Carbon interfaces rather than Cocoa, and see what
> happens with it.
>
> In any case, please report back what you find and, if necessary, open an
> issue on the Python bug tracker:
>  http://bugs.python.org/
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
>  Ned Deily,
>  n... at acm.org
Thanks so much for your incredibly in-depth response Ned!

I've tried everything you've suggested and here's what I've found:

The error occurs with the old python as well, but this MIGHT be
because at some point during my many attempts at fixing this issue I
could have deleted an old tk framework.

It's funny you mention the theming - before snow leapord, I had
leapord installed and used magnifique to theme my computer. I then
upgraded to snow leapord and (like a novice) tried to use magnifique
again only to find it crashed my system because it's not compatible
with snow leapord. I did a reinstall of the OS though, and everything
was fine. (this was about 2 years ago). I also recently installed
Crystal Black on here, however I've been having this issue since
before that. Other than that, no specific theming or color changing
schemes come to mind... Oh actually there is something called Nocturne
I used to use... Not sure if any of these could be affecting this.

There's only one color profile, and no bizarre language being used.

When I typed that in terminal, I saw 8.5.11 - this was the recommended
activestate by python.org. Should I get 8.5.11?

I tried the failing turtle commands, and in the crash report /Library/
Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.5/ only appears once (when doing a
cmd+f search) and does not have /System/ in front of it.

I'm going to try installing the 32 bit 2.7.2 installer next, and I'll
be back to let you know how it goes.

Thanks a lot!

Cameron