Issue #23441: rcompleter now prints a tab character instead of displaying

possible completions for an empty word.

Initial patch by Martin Sekera.

diff --cc Lib/test/test_rlcompleter.py
index 9d4d0bdeaf2496bc97fc22924036bea02d25e6f3,2da7fce3f03f2da38503a81cfd07560064d5d1d9..d37b620b7a45f6fcd6ba999c9571a54958451a68
--- 1/Lib/test/test_rlcompleter.py
--- 2/Lib/test/test_rlcompleter.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_rlcompleter.py
@@@ -64,5 -64,14 +64,13 @@@ class TestRlcompleter(unittest.TestCase
                           ['egg.{}('.format(x) for x in dir(str)
                            if x.startswith('s')])
  
 -
+     def test_complete(self):
+         completer = rlcompleter.Completer()
+         self.assertEqual(completer.complete('', 0), '\t')
+         self.assertEqual(completer.complete('a', 0), 'and')
+         self.assertEqual(completer.complete('a', 1), 'as')
+         self.assertEqual(completer.complete('as', 2), 'assert')
+         self.assertEqual(completer.complete('an', 0), 'and')
+ 
  if __name__ == '__main__':
      unittest.main()

diff --cc Misc/NEWS
index 209daf98045aae8c0c4b65d31ffdbb4dcf2c7749,9bacb3ab03e84518f1232ebaef8e75ba8cd9ff47..4a7aca46b66dd5ae7c177b4ce6842068365b4efe
--- 1/Misc/NEWS
--- 2/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@@ -42,6 -66,11 +42,9 @@@ Core and Builtin
  Library
  -------
  
 -- Issue #17527: Add PATCH to wsgiref.validator. Patch from Luca Sbardella.
 -
+ - Issue #23441: rcompleter now prints a tab character instead of displaying
+   possible completions for an empty word.  Initial patch by Martin Sekera.
+ 
  - Issue #24683: Fixed crashes in _json functions called with arguments of
    inappropriate type.