typing commandsbut they're too specific to get into heresee your system' documentation for details anytime you see the promptyou're in an interactive python interpreter session-you can type any python statement or expression here and run it immediately we will in momentbut first we need to get few startup details sorted out to make sure all readers are set to go where is command prompt on windowsso how do you start the command-line interface on windowssome windows readers already knowbut unix developers and beginners may notit' not as prominent as terminal or console windows on unix systems here are some pointers on finding your command promptwhich vary slightly per windows version on windows and earlierthis is usually found in the accessories section of the start-all programs menuor you can run it by typing cmd in the start-run dialog box or the start menu' search entry field you can drag out desktop shortcut to get to it quicker if desired on windows you can access command prompt in the menu opened by right-clicking on the preview in the screen' lower-left cornerin the windows system section of the "all appsdisplay reached by right-clicking your start screenor by typing cmd or command prompt in the input field of the search charm pulled down from the screen' upper-right corner there are probably additional routesand touch screens offer similar access and if you want to forget all thatpin it to your desktop taskbar for easy access next time around these procedures are prone to vary over timeand possibly even per computer and user ' trying to avoid making this book on windowsthoughso 'll cut this topic short here when in doubttry the system help interface (whose usage may differ as much as the tools it provides help for! note to any unix users reading this sidebar who may be starting to feel like fish out of wateryou may also be interested in the cygwin systemwhich brings full unix command prompt to windows see appendix for more pointers the system path when we typed python in the last section to start an interactive sessionwe relied on the fact that the system located the python program for us on its program search path depending on your python version and platformif you have not set your system' path environment variable to include python' install directoryyou may need to replace the word "pythonwith the full path to the python executable on your machine on unixlinuxand similarsomething like /usr/local/bin/python or /usr/bin/python will often suffice on windowstry typing :\python \python (for version )the interactive prompt