diff -r 0d8f0526813f Lib/idlelib/PyShell.py
--- a/Lib/idlelib/PyShell.py	Sun Nov 03 23:25:42 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/PyShell.py	Mon Nov 04 10:40:12 2013 +0200
@@ -1338,8 +1338,13 @@
     def write(self, s):
         if self.closed:
             raise ValueError("write to closed file")
-        if not isinstance(s, (basestring, bytearray)):
-            raise TypeError('must be string, not ' + type(s).__name__)
+        if type(s) not in (str, unicode, bytearray):
+            if isinstance(s, unicode):
+                s = unicode(s)
+            elif isinstance(s, (str, bytearray)):
+                s = str(s)
+            else:
+                raise TypeError('must be string, not ' + type(s).__name__)
         return self.shell.write(s, self.tags)