Ensuring you have Python installed

Our first order of business is to ensure that you have Python installed. You'll need it in order to complete most of the examples in this book. We'll be working with Python 2.6 and we assume that you're using that same version. If there are any drastic differences in earlier releases, we'll make a note of them as we go along. All of the examples should still function properly with Python 2.4 and later versions.

If you don't have Python installed, you can download the latest 2.X version from http://www.python.org. Most Linux distributions, as well as Mac OS, usually have a version of Python preinstalled.