What I do is set Python's sys.ps1 variable to something else. I have a module called "interactive" that I import implicitly by shell alias:
py='python -i -c '\''import interactive'\'
Which, among other things, sets the prompt to "Python> "
You can do the same thing using a PYTHONSTARTUP file - see http://docs.python.org/tut/node4.html#SECTION004240000000000000000
You can change the prompts with import sys sys.ps1 = ' >>> ' sys.ps2 = ' ... '
Kent -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list