(assuming that the interpreter is on the user's \envvar{PATH}) at the
beginning of the script and giving the file an executable mode. The
-\samp{\#!} must be the first two characters of the file. Note that
+\samp{\#!} must be the first two characters of the file. On some
+platforms, this first line must end with a \UNIX-style line ending
+(\character{\e n}), not a Mac OS (\character{\e r}) or Windows
+(\character{\e r\e n}) line ending. Note that
the hash, or pound, character, \character{\#}, is used to start a
comment in Python.
+The script can be given a executable mode, or permission, using the
+\program{chmod} command:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+% chmod +x myscript.py
+\end{verbatim}
+
+
\subsection{The Interactive Startup File \label{startup}}
% XXX This should probably be dumped in an appendix, since most people