Justin J writes:

I installed python 3.3.2 for my macbook running version 10.6.8 and typed this in, open -a "/Applications/Python 3.2/IDLE.app" --args -n and it didn't work:

"The action Run Shell Script encountered an error. Check the action's properties and try running the workflow again"

I installed both versions 32 bit and 64/32 bit and it still didn't work.

I'm assuming because I installed 3.3.2, I had to change it to open -a "/Applications/Python 3.3/IDLE.app" --args -n. In other words change Python 3.2 to Python 3.3. Then it worked! Unfortunately I think it was running on the 64/32 version which python mentioned something about ActiveTcl 8.5. It recommended I download 32, so I got rid of 64/32 and re-downloaded 32 bit and it finally gave me no error in the shell.

I thought I'd ask if this was an ok thing for me to do?

As per the instructions on this page, you'll need to install ActiveTcl in order for IDLE and Tkinter to work properly (both are used heavily in the book) with Mac OS X 10.6.

ActiveState have a dmg installation file, so once you've downloaded it, double-click on the file, and a dialog will appear:

ActiveTcl installation dialog

You may need to control-click on the ActiveTcl package, if you double-click and get the error message "ActiveTcl-8.5.pkg can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer". So if that error message appears, hold down the Control key, click on the icon and select Open from the menu displayed, then click Open on the following screen. Click through the next few screens (you'll be asked to agree to the license and so on), and on the final screen, once you click Install, you'll get promoted for an administrator username & password.

Apart from that, your change to the open command is correct, so once ActiveTcl is installed, you should be good to go.