Let's start with the very basics of writing and executing a Python script. What is a Python script? It is a simple text file that contains a series of organized commands written in a formalized language. The text file has the extension .py, but other than that, there is nothing to distinguish it from any other text file. It can be opened using a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad, but the magic that is Python does not reside in a Python script. Without the Python interpreter, a Python script cannot be run and the commands it contains cannot be executed.
Understanding how Python works to interpret a script and then execute the commands within is as important as understanding the Python language itself. Hours of debugging and error checking can be avoided by taking the time to set up Python correctly. The interpretive nature of Python means that a script will have to be first converted into bytecode before it can be executed. We will...