Console blocks when debugging if using the Tkinter graphics backend on Windows

Issue Report Checklist

• [x ] Searched the issues page for similar reports
• Read the relevant sections of the Spyder Troubleshooting Guide and followed its advice
• [ x] Reproduced the issue after updating with conda update spyder (or pip, if not using Anaconda)
• Could not reproduce inside jupyter qtconsole (if console-related)
• Tried basic troubleshooting (if a bug/error)
  • [ x] Restarted Spyder
  • Reset preferences with spyder --reset
  • Reinstalled the latest version of Anaconda
  • Tried the other applicable steps from the Troubleshooting Guide
• [x ] Completed the Problem Description, Steps to Reproduce and Version sections below

Problem Description

when using ctrl-F5 to debug a file , the console blocks

debugfile(‘D:/code/hyperion_metadata/python_code/untitled4.py’, wdir=‘D:/code/hyperion_metadata/python_code’)

d:\code\hyperion_metadata\python_code\untitled4.py(2)<module>() 1 # -- coding: utf-8 -- ----> 2 “”" 3 Created on Tue Mar 22 16:52:09 2022 4 5 @author: RMT7801

IPdb [1]: !continue

I did not find a way to get the console active again.

What steps reproduce the problem?

1. create a simple python file
2. place a break point
3. press ctrl+F5

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

in previous versions, the console goes trough the file in debug mode and halts on the first breakpoint.

Paste Traceback/Error Below (if applicable)

PASTE TRACEBACK HERE

Versions

• Spyder version: 5.2.2 None
• Python version: 3.7.9 64-bit
• Qt version: 5.12.10
• PyQt5 version: 5.12.3
• Operating System: Windows 10

Dependencies

# Mandatory:
atomicwrites >=1.2.0          :  1.4.0 (OK)
chardet >=2.0.0               :  4.0.0 (OK)
cloudpickle >=0.5.0           :  2.0.0 (OK)
cookiecutter >=1.6.0          :  1.7.3 (OK)
diff_match_patch >=20181111   :  20200713 (OK)
intervaltree                  :  None (OK)
IPython >=7.6.0;<8.0.0        :  7.31.1 (OK)
jedi >=0.17.2;<0.19.0         :  0.18.1 (OK)
jellyfish >=0.7               :  0.9.0 (OK)
jsonschema >=3.2.0            :  4.4.0 (OK)
keyring >=17.0.0              :  23.5.0 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0               :  6.4.0 (OK)
numpydoc >=0.6.0              :  1.1.0 (OK)
paramiko >=2.4.0              :  2.9.2 (OK)
parso >=0.7.0;<0.9.0          :  0.8.3 (OK)
pexpect >=4.4.0               :  4.8.0 (OK)
pickleshare >=0.4             :  0.7.5 (OK)
psutil >=5.3                  :  5.9.0 (OK)
pygments >=2.0                :  2.11.2 (OK)
pylint >=2.5.0                :  2.12.2 (OK)
pyls_spyder >=0.4.0           :  0.4.0 (OK)
pylsp >=1.3.2;<1.4.0          :  1.3.3 (OK)
pylsp_black >=1.0.0           :  1.0.1 (OK)
qdarkstyle =3.0.2             :  3.0.2 (OK)
qstylizer >=0.1.10            :  0.2.1 (OK)
qtawesome >=1.0.2             :  1.1.1 (OK)
qtconsole >=5.2.1;<5.3.0      :  5.2.2 (OK)
qtpy >=1.5.0                  :  2.0.0 (OK)
rtree >=0.9.7                 :  0.9.7 (OK)
setuptools >=49.6.0           :  60.5.0 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6                :  4.3.2 (OK)
spyder_kernels >=2.2.1;<2.3.0 :  2.2.1 (OK)
textdistance >=4.2.0          :  4.2.2 (OK)
three_merge >=0.1.1           :  0.1.1 (OK)
watchdog                      :  2.1.6 (OK)
zmq >=17                      :  22.3.0 (OK)

# Optional:
cython >=0.21                 :  0.29.26 (OK)
matplotlib >=2.0.0            :  3.5.1 (OK)
numpy >=1.7                   :  1.19.3 (OK)
pandas >=1.1.1                :  1.3.5 (OK)
scipy >=0.17.0                :  1.7.3 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3                 :  1.9 (OK)

[ccordoba12]

Should I do a PR with the change on ipykernel @ccordoba12 ?

Yeah, if that fixes the problem, please do that @dalthviz. Also, after a new ipykernel version is released with your fix, please add a test here to be aware of possible regressions due to future changes on that project. That PR is the one that’s going to close this bug.

[ccordoba12]

@dalthviz, I think we need to update the Tkinter binaries packaged with the installer to be the same ones used in the Python 3.8.10 version that we’re using to build it now (it seems we’re still packaging the ones for Python 3.7).

If after that this problem persists, then I’d suggest to show a message in the console saying that debugging doesn’t work with the Tkinter backend and that users need to switch to a different one.