diff -r 2993f566c82e Lib/idlelib/PyShell.py
--- a/Lib/idlelib/PyShell.py	Mon Jul 09 21:07:41 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/PyShell.py	Mon Jul 09 14:23:27 2012 -0500
@@ -1266,7 +1266,7 @@
 
     def write(self, s):
         if not isinstance(s, basestring):
-            raise TypeError('must be str, not ' + type(s).__name__)
+            raise TypeError('expected a character buffer object')
         self.shell.write(s, self.tags)
 
     def writelines(self, lines):
diff -r 2993f566c82e Lib/idlelib/run.py
--- a/Lib/idlelib/run.py	Mon Jul 09 21:07:41 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/run.py	Mon Jul 09 14:23:27 2012 -0500
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@
 
     def write(self, s):
         if not isinstance(s, basestring):
-            raise TypeError('must be str, not ' + type(s).__name__)
+            raise TypeError('expected a character buffer object')
         return self.rpc.write(s)
 
 class MyHandler(rpc.RPCHandler):