http://docs.python.org/tutorial/introduction.html#strings The statement "Note that newlines still need to be embedded in the string using \n; the newline following the trailing backslash is discarded. This example would print the following:" is confusing with the semicolon in that sentence. I was looking for a semicolon in the code fragment and thought there was a typo at first. Perhaps the following would be clearer? ""Note that newlines still need to be embedded in the string using \n ; the newline following the trailing backslash is discarded. This example would print the following:" The gray color on the command-line would then have enough white space to differentiate it from the semicolon. Or maybe i just need to buy a better monitor! :D