© Magnus Lie Hetland 2017

Magnus Lie Hetland, Beginning Python, 10.1007/978-1-4842-0028-5_1

1. Instant Hacking: The Basics

Magnus Lie Hetland

(1)Trondheim, Norway

It’s time to start hacking.1 In this chapter, you learn how to take control of your computer by speaking a language it understands: Python. Nothing here is particularly difficult, so if you know the basic principles of how your computer works, you should be able to follow the examples and try them out yourself. I’ll go through the basics, starting with the excruciatingly simple, but because Python is such a powerful language, you’ll soon be able to do pretty advanced things.

To begin, you need to install Python, or verify that you already have it installed. If you’re running macOS or Linux/UNIX, ...

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