1) Python code is organized into modules (i.e. libraries in files). To include a module use: import modulename # the file must be modulename.py in the current directory (or a special "known" directory) To use a function in that file later on, say modulename.functionname() 2) To catch an error and have it handled by an error handler, say: try: code # the word code won't execute, this will be an error except: # error handling code pass # pass is a do-nothing statement for example: try: print 1+1 print 1 + a # a is not defined, this will throw an error except: print "Whoops" Output: 2 Whoops 3) To create a class that inherits from another class, just like java, it;s: class myClass(parentclass): code where parentclass is the class we are derived from. 4) Opening a file (seen in the example code): f = open(finame,mode) text = f.read() # reads ALL of the file into variable text f.close() or f = open(finame,mode) text = f.readlines() # reads ALL of the file returning a list where each line # is one element of the array f.close()