Downloading and Installing Python You can download Python for Windows, OS X, and Ubuntu for free from http://python.org/downloads/. If you download the latest version from the website’s download page, download a version of Python 3 (such as 3.4.0). The programs in our contents are written to run on Python 3 and may not run correctly, if at all, on Python 2. You’ll find Python installers for 64-bit and 32-bit computers for each operating system on the download page, so first figure out which installer you need. If you bought your computer in 2007 or later, it is most likely a 64-bit system. Otherwise, you have a 32-bit version, but here’s how to find out for sure: • On Windows, select Start4Control Panel4System and check whether System Type says 64-bit or 32-bit. • On OS X, go the Apple menu, select About This Mac4More Info4 System Report4Hardware, and then look at the Processor Name field. If it says Intel Core Solo or Intel Core Duo, you have a 32-bit machine. If
INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON: The Python programming language has a wide range of syntactical constructions, standard library functions, and interactive development environment features. Fortunately, you can ignore most of that; you just need to learn enough to write some handy little programs. You will, however, have to learn some basic programming concepts before you can do anything. Like a wizard-in-training, you might think these concepts seem arcane and tedious, but with some knowledge and practice, you’ll be able to command your computer like a magic wand to perform incredible feats. Errors Are Okay ! Programswill crash if they contain code the computer can’t understand, which will cause Python to show an error message. An error message won’t break your computer, though, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes. A crash just means the program stopped running unexpectedly. Python is the object oriented general purpose programming language. It is interpreted language because it is