the answer looks strangeit indicates an alternate way to encode the string internally in python using escape codes escape codes are embedded inside string literals and start with backslash character they are used to embed characters that are either unprintable or have special syntactic meaning to python that you want to suppress in this example you see some of the ones in this short list of most common escape codesescape code \\ \\meaning (backslashnewline (single quote character(double quote characterthe newline character indicates further text will appear on new line when printed when you use the print functionyou get the actual printed meaning of the escape coded character predict the resultand try in the shellprint(' \nb\ \nc'did you guess the right number of lines splitting in the right places the idle editor and execution loading program in the idle editorand running it it is time to put longer collections of instructions together that is most easily done by creating text file and running the python interpreter on the file idle simplifies that process first you can put an existing file into an idle edit window start with the sample program madlib py if you have not downloaded it yetsee your python folder and python examples (page assuming you are already in idle from the previous sectionsyou can open file from thereclick on the idle file menu and select open (or as you seeyou can use the shortcut ctrl- that means holding down the ctrl keyand pressing the letter for open you should get file selection dialog you need to navigate to the folder with the file you want if you already had file openand its window has the foreground focus when you make access the file menuthen the folder that opens is the same as the folder from which the current file came if the shell window has the foreground focusthen the folder opened depends on the operating systemwindowsat least through python windows is likely to open buried system folder that you do not want to mess withswitch to your desktop or documentsand find the right folder from there hopefully the behaviour will be more like on mac in future version mac and linuxa reasonable folder opensdocuments navigate from there hence it is important to set the focus on an edit window to have the same folder appear when opening new file select the file you want (the initial suggestion was madlib py you will see the source code again now run this program from inside of idlego to the run menu of that edit windowand select run module notice the shortcut ( also available if the shell window does not automatically come to the foregroundselect it you should see line saying restart and then the start of the execution of the mad lib program with the cursor waiting for your entry after the first prompt finish executing the program be sure to type the final requested enterso you get back to the interpreter prompt beginning with python