Boston Python workshop 2/Friday setup/Interactive Python on Linux

Linux ships with Python installed, so the goal of this page is to make sure you can start a terminal and run Python from the command line.

 Open a Terminal command prompt. You can find the Terminal application at Applications/Accessories/Terminal, or it may already be on your menu bar. To start Python, type

python

at the comand prompt and hit enter. You should see something like Python 2.7.1 (r252:60911, Jan 24 2011, 17:44:40) [GCC 4.3.2] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>>

The  indicates that you are at a Python prompt. Exit the Python prompt by typing

exit

and hitting enter. Now you're back at the Linux command prompt. 

Success!
Practice these steps until you feel comfortable navigating to a command prompt, starting Python, and exiting Python.