#10974: IDLE no longer crashes if its recent files list includes files

        with non-ASCII characters in their path names.

        (with approval of release manager for 3.2rc2)

Lib/idlelib/EditorWindow.py

@@ -772,7 +772,8 @@ class EditorWindow(object):
         "Load and update the recent files list and menus"
         rf_list = []
         if os.path.exists(self.recent_files_path):
-            rf_list_file = open(self.recent_files_path,'r')
+            rf_list_file = open(self.recent_files_path,'r',
+                                encoding='utf_8', errors='replace')
             try:
                 rf_list = rf_list_file.readlines()
             finally:
@@ -790,7 +791,8 @@ class EditorWindow(object):
         rf_list = [path for path in rf_list if path not in bad_paths]
         ulchars = "1234567890ABCDEFGHIJK"
         rf_list = rf_list[0:len(ulchars)]
-        rf_file = open(self.recent_files_path, 'w')
+        rf_file = open(self.recent_files_path, 'w',
+                        encoding='utf_8', errors='replace')
         try:
             rf_file.writelines(rf_list)
         finally:

Misc/NEWS

@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #10974: IDLE no longer crashes if its recent files list includes files
+  with non-ASCII characters in their path names.
+
 - Have hashlib.algorithms_available and hashlib.algorithms_guaranteed both
   return sets instead of one returning a tuple and the other a frozenset.