the examples in this book were run on windows and ultrabook, though python' portability makes this mostly moot pointespecially in this fundamentals-focused book you'll notice few windows-isms--including command-line promptsa handful of screenshotsinstall pointersand an appendix on the new windows launcher in --but this reflects the fact that most python newcomers will probably get started on this platformand these can be safely ignored by users of other operating systems also give few launching details for other platforms like linuxsuch as "#!line usebut as we'll see in and appendix bthe windows launcher makes even this more portable technique fetching this book' code source code for the book' examplesas well as exercise solutionscan be fetched as zip file from the book' website at the following addressthis site includes both all the code in this book as well as package usage instructionsso 'll defer to it for more details of coursethe examples work best in the context of their appearance in this bookand you'll need some background knowledge on running python programs in general to make use of them we'll study startup details in so please stay tuned for information on this front using this book' code the code in my python books is designed to teachand ' glad when it assists readers in that capacity 'reilly itself has an official policy regarding reusing the book' examples in generalwhich 've pasted into the rest of this section for referencethis book is here to help you get your job done in generalyou may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation you do not need to contact us for permission unless you're reproducing significant portion of the code for examplewriting program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission selling or distributing cd-rom of examples from 'reilly books does require permission answering question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission incorporating significant amount of example code from this book into your product' documentation does require permission mostly under windows but it' irrelevant to this book at this writingpython installs on windows and runs in its desktop modewhich is essentially the same as windows without start button as write this (you may need to create shortcuts for former start button menu itemssupport for winrtmetro "appsis still pending see appendix for more details franklythe future of windows is unclear as type these wordsso this book will be as version-neutral as possible xlvi preface