Fix Tcl inside a virtualenv on Windows (issue #93)

[ghost]

See issue #93 for details and alternative solutions. One suggestion was to bring code from Lib\lib-tk\FixTk.py into site.py, but leaving site.py alone and copying a minimally modified FixTk.py to the Lib directory when the virtualenv is created seems cleaner to me. The only changes to FixTk.py were to replace sys.prefix with sys.real_prefix at lines 49 and 52.

Fixing this is really important because it affects matplotlib.

All nosetests pass and matplotlib and Tkinter work on python 2.6 and 2.7. Issue #93 referred to Python 2.6 so this would close it. A quick test importing tkinter and calling tkinter._test() in a Python 3.4 virtualenv shows the problem is unresolved there, but it probably doesn't matter anyway since Python 3.3 and venv.

[pfmoore]

This seems to write a new file, but never use it. How is this functionality activated?

[pfmoore]

Hmm, wait. I see there's a Lib\lib-tk\FixTk.py in Python 2.7. So this fix doesn't work on Python 3 (where there's no lib-tk directory). Can it be updated to cover that as well?

Also, if this is a copy/paste and edit of the core FixTk.py, won't any changes core Python makes in later versions be lost? That doesn't sound good - I'd prefer a fix that properly monkeypatched whatever was in the core distribution, if we're going down this route at all.

[Ivoz]

Also, if this is a copy/paste and edit of the core FixTk.py, won't any changes core Python makes in later versions be lost?

That's actually already the case for virtualenv's site.py that it has vendored / modified - it's missing functions that were introduced in 2.7 See #355

But since this is for 2.X only and we already know there's no 2.8, I can't imagine that is a worry for this particular file

[pfmoore]

Is it meant to be for 2.x only? If so, the file should only be written on 2.x. And if it's not, the point remains for the equivalent file on 3.x - copying the file has risks. (OTOH, it may be that the 3.x version fixes this issue as it presumably supports venv...)

But yeah, it's a relatively minor point.

[jedie]

Hmm, wait. I see there's a Lib\lib-tk\FixTk.py in Python 2.7. So this fix doesn't work on Python 3 (where there's no lib-tk directory). Can it be updated to cover that as well?

The fix file also exist in Python 3, here: "C:\Python34\Lib\tkinter_fix.py"
it's simmilar content to "C:\Python27\Lib\lib-tk\FixTk.py"

[ghost]

I would explicitly limit the scope to 2.x. I doubt one can fix this for both 2.x and 3.x at the same time, and all traffic on issue #93 (and its parent https://bugs.launchpad.net/virtualenv/+bug/449537) is from python 2.x users.

Yes - FixTk.py should only be written to 2.x virtual envs. I will look into excluding it from 3.x virtual envs.

What is the consensus about including the edited FixTk.py the way I did, vs. the risk of usptream python changes, considering this will be a Python 2.x thing only?

[Ivoz]

I think it should be fine provided it's inserted into 2.x virtualenvs only.

[pfmoore]

I agree with @Ivoz. Maybe add a comment explaining where FixTk.py came from (i.e., that it's a copy of the file from the Python 2.7 sources).

Also, if someone can test that this is not an issue for Python 3.x that would be good. I'd rather we didn't end up adding a barrier to people upgrading to Python 3.x "because matplotlib stops working in my virtualenvs".

[yoavram]

Just trying to find out if this is going to be merged to master anytime soon?

[tommilligan]

I'd also like this to be merged at some point in future - any update?

[ikku100]

Same here.

[BrownTruck]

Hello!

As part of an effort to ease the contribution process and adopt a more standard workflow virtualenv has switched to doing development on the master branch. However, this Pull Request was made against the develop branch so it will need to be resubmitted against master.

If you do nothing, this Pull Request will be automatically migrated by @BrownTruck for you.

If you would like to retain control over this pull request then you should resubmit it against the master branch, closing and referencing the original Pull Request.

If you choose to migrate this Pull Request yourself, here is an example message that you can copy and paste:

See issue #93 for details and alternative solutions. One suggestion was to bring code from Lib\lib-tk\FixTk.py into site.py, but leaving site.py alone and copying a minimally modified FixTk.py to the Lib directory when the virtualenv is created seems cleaner to me. The only changes to FixTk.py were to replace sys.prefix with sys.real_prefix at lines 49 and 52. 

Fixing this is really important because it affects matplotlib.

All nosetests pass and matplotlib and Tkinter work on python 2.6 and 2.7. Issue #93 referred to Python 2.6 so this would close it. A quick test importing tkinter and calling tkinter._test() in a Python 3.4 virtualenv shows the problem is unresolved there, but it probably doesn't matter anyway since Python 3.3 and venv.

---

*This was migrated from pypa/virtualenv#627 to reparent it to the ``master`` branch. Please see original pull request for any previous discussion.*

If this pull request is no longer needed, please feel free to close it.

[BrownTruck]

This Pull Request has been automatically migrated to #911 to reparent it to the master branch. Please see the new pull request for any new discussion.