_tkinter.TclError when using Python 3.12 and 3.13 from Homebrew on macOS Sequoia 15.2

[w8sl]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: >=4.3.0 (shallow or no git repository)
ORIGIN: (none)
HEAD: (none)
Last commit: never
Branch: (none)
Core tap HEAD: (none)
Core tap last commit: never
Core tap branch: (none)
Core tap JSON: 17 Dec 18:43 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 17 Dec 18:43 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 10
HOMEBREW_SORBET_RUNTIME: set
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.6 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.6/bin/ruby
CPU: 10-core 64-bit arm_firestorm_icestorm
Clang: 16.0.0 build 1600
Git: 2.39.5 => /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 15.2-arm64
CLT: 16.2.0.0.1.1733547573
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

Your system is ready to brew

Description of issue

I get: _tkinter.TclError: bad option "variable": must be add, info, or remove, which is related to deprecated function: self.trace("w",..)
Correcting all occurrences in the source code of https://github.com/oscarpilote/Ortho4XP to: self.trace_add("write",..) doesn´t help! Still impossible to make previews and move the map. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to reproduce the issue with simple code example.
Interestingly, everything (as far as I can see) is ok on macOS Sequoia, with with Python 3.13 and 3.14 from python.org (self.trace("w",..) is accepted btw)

[Bo98]

trace_add should work. trace/trace_variable indeed has been deprecated since 2016 (Python 3.6).

[w8sl]

I suspect trace is not the only problem. Something weird is happening after correction, like ImageTk.PhotoImage cannot find the image when called from a complex function like this:
https://github.com/oscarpilote/Ortho4XP/blob/c5e0d4b50774de1850246fac56b9d461ae026a72/src/O4_GUI_Utils.py#L894
Simpler code works without problems
This is very specific for Homebrews Python 3.12 and 3.13 for Sequoia. Everything else works on Windows,Linux and Python from org on Sequoia.

[w8sl]

There’s a threading issue also. Here’s an example code that reproduces the crash (_tkinter.TclError: image type "photo" does not exist) with Homebrew’s Python 3.13 on Sequoia 15.2, but works with any Python 3.11 or 3.13 from python.org:

(requires pillow)

import os
import tkinter as tk
from PIL import Image, ImageTk
import traceback
import threading
import queue

class Example:
    def __init__(self, root):
        self.root = root
        self.photo = None
        self.queue = queue.Queue()
        self.image_label = tk.Label(root)
        self.image_label.pack()
        self.check_queue()
        # Start the image loading process in a separate thread
        threading.Thread(target=self.async_build_map_layer, args=(37, 23, 11, "OSM", self.queue)).start()
    
    def check_queue(self):
        try:
            photo = self.queue.get_nowait()
            self.update_image(photo)
        except queue.Empty:
            self.root.after(100, self.check_queue)
    
    def update_image(self, photo):
        self.photo = photo
        self.image_label.config(image=self.photo)
        self.image_label.image = self.photo  # Keep a reference to avoid garbage collection

    @staticmethod
    def async_build_map_layer(lat, lon, zl, provider, output_queue):
        try:
            # Simulate loading an image file
            image_path = "absolute path to some .jpeg"
            background_map = Image.open(image_path)
            print("Image loaded successfully")
            print(lat, lon, zl, provider)

            # Simulate some processing delay
            import time
            time.sleep(2)
            
            photo = ImageTk.PhotoImage(background_map)
            output_queue.put(photo)
        
        except Exception as e:
            traceback.print_exc()
            raise e

root = tk.Tk()
app = Example(root)
root.mainloop()

[cho-m]

If you are able to, try building Homebrew/homebrew-core#201830 from source and see if it works.

That applies part of upstream commit python/cpython@47cbf03 for some more compatibility with TCL 9 along with my open PR to fix threading.

---

If there are still issues, will need to root cause to figure out where they are happening (e.g. in case of pillow, it could be in pillow calls to tkinter API, CPython tkinter's calls to TCL/TK API, or in TCL/TK itself)

[w8sl]

That fixes the problem with sample code and Ortho4XP previews as well - thank you !!!

Changes not present in Python 3.13 from org are introduced:

• trace("w") -> trace_add("write") which is backwards compatible and well described in "Migrating scripts to Tcl 9" documentation

• change of right mouse click behavior from: "ButtonPress-2" and "B2-Motion" on macOS, "ButtonPress-3" and "B3-Motion" on other systems, into: "ButtonPress-3" and "B3-Motion" on all systems, which is not backwards compatible !

(Python 3.12 is also affected by the same problem, Python 3.11 is ok)