Following the blame history, this appears to be new issue following issue5845.

I'm using Python 3.4b2 64-bit on Windows. I've installed pyreadline 2.0 using Setuptools 2.1. Now, when I start the interactive interpreter, I get this output:

> python
Python 3.4.0b2 (v3.4.0b2:ba32913eb13e, Jan  5 2014, 16:13:26) [MSC v.1600 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
Failed calling sys.__interactivehook__
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\python\lib\site.py", line 412, in register_readline
    if readline.get_history_item(1) is None:
  File "c:\python\lib\site-packages\pyreadline-2.0-py3.4-win-amd64.egg\pyreadline\rlmain.py", line 154, in get_history_item
  File "c:\python\lib\site-packages\pyreadline-2.0-py3.4-win-amd64.egg\pyreadline\lineeditor\history.py", line 52, in get_history_item
IndexError: list index out of range

It seems I don't yet have any history, and it seems that site.py is expecting get_history_item() to return None when no history is present, but the pyreadline 2.0 implementation does no such thing, but instead tries to index the history array directly, causing the IndexError.

Sounds reasonably easy to fix. Can you write a patch?

Is the proper fix to address the issue in site.py? Does this issue reveal anything else of concern about the implementation?

Assuming Yes and No, then yes, I can put together a fix.

> Is the proper fix to address the issue in site.py? Does this issue
> reveal anything else of concern about the implementation?

I don't know, but it's a regression, so we'd better add a "fix" or
"workaround" in site.py anyway.

New changeset ca6efeedfc0e by Jason R. Coombs in branch 'default':
Issue #20411: Use readline.get_current_history_length to check for the presence of a history, rather than get_history_item, which assumes a history is present.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/ca6efeedfc0e

After further consideration and investigation, I believe the fix is to simply use the API as exposed by pyreadline to check the length of the history to detect the presence of an existing history. I've tested that fix locally and it seems to be working suitably. Please review and suggest corrections as appropriate.