gh-152940: Add a Unicode character browser to IDLE

Add a Character Browser command to the Edit menu (Shell and editor).  It
opens a window for browsing Unicode blocks in a grid, viewing a
character's details, and searching by name or code point.  A character
can be inserted at the cursor of the editor or shell, or copied to the
clipboard.  On the detail tabs, a representation or normalization form
can be clicked to copy it or double-clicked to insert it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: serhiy-storchaka

Doc/library/idle.rst

@@ -170,6 +170,13 @@ Show Call Tip
 Show Surrounding Parens
    Highlight the surrounding parenthesis.
 
+Character Browser
+   Open a window to browse Unicode blocks and search for characters by name or code point.
+   Double-click a character, or select it and press Insert, to insert it into the current window.
+   Press Copy character to copy it to the clipboard.
+   The detail tabs show the character's representations, such as escapes, UTF-8 bytes, XML and HTML references, and normalization forms.
+   Click a highlighted value to copy it, or double-click it to insert it.
+
 .. _format-menu:
 
 Format menu (Editor window only)

Lib/idlelib/News3.txt

@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ Released on 2026-10-01
 =========================
 
 
+gh-152940: Add a Unicode character browser to IDLE.  It appears on the
+Edit menu as "Character Browser" and can browse Unicode blocks, search
+for characters by name or code point, insert a character into the
+window, and copy a character to the clipboard.  Patch by Serhiy
+Storchaka.
+
 gh-152745:  When "Run... Customized" with "Restart shell" unchecked
 while Shell is running code, including waiting for an input('prompt:')
 response, just report that the shell is executing instead of

Lib/idlelib/charselect.py

@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ def __init__(self, flist=None, filename=None, key=None, root=None):
         text.bind("<<find-selection>>", self.find_selection_event)
         text.bind("<<replace>>", self.replace_event)
         text.bind("<<goto-line>>", self.goto_line_event)
+        text.bind("<<open-character-browser>>", self.open_character_browser)
         text.bind("<<smart-backspace>>",self.smart_backspace_event)
         text.bind("<<newline-and-indent>>",self.newline_and_indent_event)
         text.bind("<<smart-indent>>",self.smart_indent_event)
@@ -740,6 +741,11 @@ def open_path_browser(self, event=None):
         pathbrowser.PathBrowser(self.root)
         return "break"
 
+    def open_character_browser(self, event=None):
+        from idlelib import charselect
+        charselect.open(self)
+        return "break"
+
     def open_turtle_demo(self, event = None):
         import subprocess
 

Lib/idlelib/editor.py

@@ -79,6 +79,15 @@
            "Verify x.y.z versions and test each button, including Close.\n "
     }
 
+CharSelectWindow_spec = {
+    'file': 'charselect',
+    'kwds': {'_htest': True},
+    'msg': "Pick a block from the dropdown and scroll the grid.\n"
+           "Click a character to see its details; double-click to copy it.\n"
+           "Search for 'heart' or 'U+1F600' and press Go.\n"
+           "Test the Copy buttons and verify the status bar feedback."
+    }
+
 # TODO implement ^\; adding '<Control-Key-\\>' to function does not work.
 _calltip_window_spec = {
     'file': 'calltip_w',