When IDLE 3 is used with Aqua Tk 8.4 on OS X (as is the case with the 32-bit-only installer for Python 3.1.x or 3.2rc1), if the user tries to run a Python program with a syntax error from an editor window, the Run command causes the IDLE shell window to move to the front, generally obscuring the editor window.  For some unknown reason, a slight change between IDLE 2.x and IDLE 3.x causes the resulting modal Syntax Error message window to drop down from and be attached to the menu bar of the Editor Window. With Aqua Tk 8.4, the modal error only responds to a mouse click on the obscured Editor window's menu bar.  To an unsuspecting user, it appears that IDLE is hung.  In IDLE 2.x, the resulting modal error message is a top-level one, so it appears in a separate, unobscured window, the same as all other error messages in IDLE 2.x and 3.x.  From the svn checkin early in the Python 3 development cycle, it is not at all clear why this minor change was made but it causes a major usability problem for OS X users.

The attached patch reverts the change in this case restoring the behavior of IDLE 2.x.  This fix should be applied to 3.2rc2.