source code (programcomputer running an outputs interpreter inputs figure interpreting high-level language the program runs compiled programs tend to be fastersince the translation is done once and for allbut interpreted languages lend themselves to more flexible programming environment as programs can be developed and run interactively the translation process highlights another advantage that high-level languages have over machine languageportability the machine language of computer is created by the designers of the particular cpu each kind of computer has its own machine language program for intel core duo won' run directly on different cpu on the other handa program written in high-level language can be run on many different kinds of computers as long as there is suitable compiler or interpreter (which is just another programas resulti can run the exact same python program on my laptop and my pdaeven though they have different cpusthey both sport python interpreter the magic of python now that you have all the technical detailsit' time to start having fun with python the ultimate goal is to make the computer do our bidding to this endwe will write programs that control the computational processes inside the machine you have already seen that there is no magic in this processbut in some ways programming feels like magic the computational processes inside the computer are like magical spirits that we can harness for our work unfortunatelythose spirits only understand very arcane language that we do not know what we need is friendly genie that can direct the spirits to fulfill our wishes our genie is python interpreter we can give instructions to the python interpreterand it directs the underlying spirits to carry out our demands we communicate with the genie through special language of spells and incantations ( pythonthe best way to start learning about python is to let our genie out of the bottle and try some spells you can start the python interpreter in an interactive mode and type in some commands to see what happens when you first start the interpreter programyou may see something like the followingpython ( : jan : : [gcc (prerelease(ubuntu - ubuntu )on linux type "help""copyright""creditsor "licensefor more information