IDLE on macOS will close without warning when there are open unsaved files

[ronaldoussoren]

Bug report

Bug description:

To reproduce:

• Start IDLE by launching the IDLE.app included with our installers
• Create a new file or open an existing file
• Modify that file by typing into it
• Quit IDLE

Expected behaviour:

• IDLE warns about unsaved open files before quitting

Actual behaviour:

• IDLE quits without warning, losing work

CPython versions tested on:

3.11, 3.12, 3.13

Operating systems tested on:

macOS

Linked PRs

• gh-112898: warn about unsaved files when quitting IDLE on macOS #112939
• [3.12] gh-112898: warn about unsaved files when quitting IDLE on macOS (GH-112939) #112960
• [3.11] gh-112898: warn about unsaved files when quitting IDLE on macOS (GH-112939) #112961
• gh-112898: Remove the false "Cancel" button in the "Save On Close" msgbox #112994
• gh-112898: Fix double close dialog with warning about unsafed files #113513

[terryjreedy]

Is "launching IDLE.app" what I do when I click the an icon in either Finder or the dock? Either way, I have no the same issue on my MacBook Air Catalina. On Windows, I see a Save On Close box with, for instance, "Do you want to save this untitled file before closing?".

The box is a tkinter.message.askyesnocancel box called in idlelib.iomenu.IOBinding.maybesave, which is called in editor.EditorWindow.maybesave. Tkinter.message calls code in other tkinter dialog submodules.

EDIT: Change no to the same as I must have only tested closing the window and not IDLE completely. Adjust other text.

[chrstphrchvz]

I observe this when using “Quit” from the app menu and the dock icon menu, and using Command-Q. I suspect this has always been the case on Tk Aqua and does not have to do with the macOS or Tcl/Tk version. Apparently the way to prevent this is to override the Tcl proc ::tk::mac::Quit.

[ronaldoussoren]

Is "launching IDLE.app" what I do when I click the an icon in either Finder or the dock?

I double clicked on the IDLE.app in the finder to start IDLE.

[ronaldoussoren]

I observe this when using “Quit” from the app menu and the dock icon menu, and using Command-Q. I suspect this has always been the case on Tk Aqua and does not have to do with the macOS or Tcl/Tk version. Apparently the way to prevent this is to override the Tcl proc ::tk::mac::Quit.

I'll see if implementing this for IDLE helps here.

[chrstphrchvz]

I think this is the spot where IDLE already tries to prevent Tk Aqua from closing:

cpython/Lib/idlelib/macosx.py

Lines 218 to 224 in dd2ebdf

	if flist:
	root.bind('<<close-all-windows>>', flist.close_all_callback)
	# The binding above doesn't reliably work on all versions of Tk
	# on macOS. Adding command definition below does seem to do the
	# right thing for now.
	root.createcommand('exit', flist.close_all_callback)

Replacing exit with ::tk::mac::Quit seems to work as expected. Even in wish, redefining the exit proc does not prevent Tk Aqua from closing.

[chrstphrchvz]

I suspect this has always been the case on Tk Aqua and does not have to do with the macOS or Tcl/Tk version.

I was wrong. This behavior was introduced in Tk 8.6.11 (late 2020) by this change: https://core.tcl-lang.org/tk/info/a055a4fa5c68
…which was part of the attempted fix for https://core.tcl-lang.org/tk/info/c2483bfe4b

[ronaldoussoren]

I think this is the spot where IDLE already tries to prevent Tk Aqua from closing:

cpython/Lib/idlelib/macosx.py

Lines 218 to 224 in dd2ebdf

	if flist:
	root.bind('<<close-all-windows>>', flist.close_all_callback)
	# The binding above doesn't reliably work on all versions of Tk
	# on macOS. Adding command definition below does seem to do the
	# right thing for now.
	root.createcommand('exit', flist.close_all_callback)

Replacing exit with ::tk::mac::Quit seems to work as expected. Even in wish, redefining the exit proc does not prevent Tk Aqua from closing.

Thanks, that's a better fix that I had initially.

UPDATE: I've added you as a co-author to the PR I created earlier.