Pythons Console Module has made it impossible to type the tab key

Tested solution for Windows 10 (17 January 2020)

  • Copy last traceback file path C:\SP_CI_PROGRAMS\Languages\Python\3.6.1\Lib\rlcompleter.py
  • Open it with any text editor
    • If has VsCode use cmd and copy this
    • code C:\SP_CI_PROGRAMS\Languages\Python\3.6.1\Lib\rlcompleter.py
  • Look the line 80 which traceback tell us
  • Change these line (starts 79) like bellow and It will works
  • There will no error message and unnecessary tab more
...
if _readline_available:                  ## The old one is ##
    if hasattr(readline, 'redisplay'):   # if _readline_available:
        readline.insert_text('\t')       #     readline.insert_text('\t')
        readline.redisplay()             #     readline.redisplay()
    return ''                            # return ''
...

Do not forget to relaunch your python terminal


Stop using pyreadline. It's been abandoned. What you're seeing is a known issue, but unless someone takes over pyreadline development, it's unlikely to ever be fixed.


Seems to be a continuing issue for Windows machines as seen on Github. A workaround seems to be uninstalling the pyreadline package.