diff --git a/Doc/perl/python.perl b/Doc/perl/python.perl
index 6dfa018896e..8606ece970c 100644
--- a/Doc/perl/python.perl
+++ b/Doc/perl/python.perl
@@ -52,6 +52,11 @@ sub do_cmd_let{
 }
 
 
+# the older version of LaTeX2HTML we use doesn't support this, but we use it:
+
+sub do_cmd_textasciitilde{ '~' . @_[0]; }
+
+
 # words typeset in a special way (not in HTML though)
 
 sub do_cmd_ABC{ 'ABC' . @_[0]; }