Downloading Python

cBefore you start, you need Python on your computer, but you may not need to download it. First of all check (by entering python in a command line window) that you don't already have Python installed! If you see a response from a Python interpreter it will include a version number in its inital display. Generally any recent version will do, as Python makes every attempt to maintain backwards compatibility.

If you need to install, you may as well download the most recent stable version. This is the one with the highest number that isn't marked as an alpha or beta release. Currently the stable version is [http://www.python.org/2.5/ Python 2.5].

If you're running Windows: the most stable Windows download is [http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.5/python-2.5.msi Python 2.5 for Windows].

If you're running Windows XP: a complete guide to installing ActivePython is at [http://www.richarddooling.com/index.php/category/geekophilia/ Python on XP: 7 Minutes To "Hello World!"]. ShowMeDo has [http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=PythonDownloadInstallTest three videos] for downloading, installing and testing Python (v2.4.2) on a Windows XP machine, though the 'downloading' video refers to an earlier version of the python.org website.

If you are using a Mac, see [http://www.python.org/download/mac/ this page]. MacOS 10.2 (Jaguar), 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger) come with Python already, but you will probably want to install the [http://pythonmac.org/packages/py24-fat/index.html latest universal build].

For Red Hat, install the python2 and python2-devel packages.

For Debian, install the python2.5 and python2.5-dev packages.

For other systems, or if you want to install from source, see the [http://www.python.org/download/ general download page].