getting access to python the need for text editor since programs consist of plain textwe need to write this text with the help of another program that can store the text in file you have most likely extensive experience with writing text on computerbut for writing your own programs you need special programscalled editorswhich preserve exactly the characters you type the widespread word processorsmicrosoft word being primary exampleare aimed at producing nice-looking reports these programs format the text and are not acceptable tools for writing your own programseven though they can save the document in pure text format spaces are often important in python programsand editors for plain text give you complete control of the spaces and all other characters in the program file text editors the most widely used editors for writing programs are emacs and vimwhich are available on all major platforms some simpler alternatives for beginners are linuxgedit mac os xtextwrangler windowsnotepad+we may mention that python comes with an editor called idlewhich can be used to write programs on all three platformsbut running the program with commandline arguments is bit complicated for beginners in idle so idle is not my favorite recommendation gedit is standard program on linux platformsbut all other editors must be installed in your system this is easyjust google the namedownload the fileand follow the standard procedure for installation all of the mentioned editors come with graphical user interface that is intuitive to usebut the major popularity of emacs and vim is due to their rich set of short-keys so that you can avoid using the mouse and consequently edit at higher speed terminal windows to run the python programyou need terminal window this is window where you can issue unix commands in linux and mac os systems and dos commands in windows on linux computergnome-terminal is my favoritebut other choices work equally wellsuch as xterm and konsole on mac computerlaunch the application utilities terminal on windowslaunch powershell you must first move to the right folder using the cd foldername command then running python program prog py is matter of writing python prog py whatever the program prints can be seen in the terminal window