In this chapter, we learned how to install Python and other related issues, such as how to launch and quit Python, whether Python is case sensitive, and a few simple examples. Since it's a simple and straightforward explanation, any reader who is new to Python could easily download and install Python in a few minutes. After that, they could try a few given examples. We also offered a brief introduction as to why we adopt Python as our computational tool, and what the advantages and disadvantages are of using Python.
In the next chapter, you will learn some basic concepts and several frequently used Python built-in functions. We will demonstrate how to use Python as an ordinary calculator to solve many finance-related problems. For example, we could estimate the present value of one future cash flow, the future value of one cash flow today, the present value of a perpetuity, or the present value of a growing perpetuity. In addition, we will discuss the dir(), type(), floor(), round(), and help() functions.
