Section C.1 Python Executable
While the majority of the processing of your text is accomplished with XSL transforms, we rely on Python for numerous other tasks and conveniences. So, sooner or later, you will want, or need, to get Python working on your system. Part of our attraction to Python is that is very popular and so should run very similarly (identically?) on a variety of systems: Linux, Mac, and Windows. So the quicker we can get you to a platform-neutral setup, the better.
On Linux and Mac, you will likely have at least some version of Python already installed. On Windows, you may need to explicitly install it. (We hope to provide some more careful advice here for Windows users. For now, see Section L.4 and Appendix M.)
Python 2 is no longer being developed and is officially dead. That does not mean you do not have it on your system. And for older systems, it may well be the default. PreTeXt requires at least Python 3.8.5 (current as of 2022-08-31). At a command-line, or in a terminal or console, or at a command-prompt, try
python --version
and if the result is unacceptable, then try
python3 --version
Remember which variant you need—we will just routinely use the generic
python.
