How to do it...

1. Check whether you have Python installed already.
2. Open the command line.
3. Enter the following command:
   

python --version

4. If you see an output like the one displayed as follows, Python is already installed. And you can skip to step 6:

Python 2.7.10

5. If you receive an error such as the following, continue with the installation in step 5:

command not found: python

6. Install Python on your computer:
   • For macOS, download and run the installer for the latest version of Python 2 or 3 from the following link: https://www.python.org/downloads/mac-osx/
   • For Windows, download and run the installer for the latest version of Python 2 or 3 from the following link: https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
   •  For Linux, use the operating system's built in the package manager to install the Python package
7. Create a folder on your desktop named es8-cookbook-workspace.
8. Inside the folder, create a text file named hello.txt and save some text to it.
9. Open the Command Prompt and navigate to the folder:
10.  In the Linux or macOS Terminal enter:

    cd ~/Desktop/es8-cookbook-workspace

11. On Windows type the following command:

    cd C:Desktopes8-cookbook-workspace 

12. Start the Python HTTP server with the following command:

    python -m SimpleHTTPServer # python 2 

Or we can use following command:

python -m http.server # python 3

13. Open your browser and enter the following URL:
    http://localhost:8000/.

14. You should see a page that shows the contents of the es8-cookbook-workspace folder:

15. Click on the link to hello.txt and you'll see the text contents of the file you created.