Python Tools for Visual Studio and the Microsoft Python developer blog

The Python team at Microsoft is in the same group that brought you SQL Server, Azure ML Studio and Cortana Analytics Suite.

Python is obviously a big part of data science these days, and so it’s great for us to be located so close to the teams that are really advancing the field.

You may have already seen Jupyter Notebooks in Azure ML Studio and the Cortana Analytics Gallery – that was us. We’ve also collaborated with other teams to bring the Azure ML data access SDK for Python, so you can programmatically bring your data sets in and out of Azure ML Studio.

What great is the team are working with the Visual Studio team to provide Python support through Python Tools for Visual Studio, which you can get in any of the free for all versions  Visual Studio 2015 and other teams at Microsoft to improve their Python support, so you can use Python in Azure App Service, for Application Insights, Windows IoT, or to manage all of your Azure services with the cross-platform Azure SDK for Python.

The team is also working with the community, whether that’s sponsoring the Jupyter/IPython project, hosting PyLadies events, supporting PyCon US or hosting PyData Seattle in our conference center.

You can find out the latest from the team at https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/pythonengineering

What is supported in Python for Visual Studio

CPython, PyPy, IronPython and more
Detailed IntelliSense
Interactive debugging
Integrated with Visual Studio features
Free and open-source
Select it in Visual Studio custom install

Product Features and Support

Editing

An editor that knows your code

Let Visual Studio think about your code and tell you which types go where. Tooltips, completions and code snippets make you more productive.

Libraries

Find and install the libraries you need

Third-party libraries are the fastest way to solve your problems. Use our pip, PyPI and virtual environment support to manage your projects and dependencies.

Debugging

Interactively diagnose issues with your code on Windows and Linux

None of us write perfect code all the time, but when it goes wrong Visual Studio can help. Visually step through your code, view or modify state, and interact with your program regardless of the operating system.

Interactive

A familiar Python interactive REPL with the power of Visual Studio

Don’t wait until you’re finished to start seeing what your code does. The Interactive Window immediately executes your code, showing the output, errors, graphs and images. Integration with IPython makes it a powerful data manipulation platform.

Source Control

Git and TFS without a command line

Manage your Git/TFS projects, pending changes, and branches with ease using Team Explorer, or check out one of the many source control extensions available for Visual Studio.

Unit Tests

Validate your changes in the editor

Make sure your code is working correctly without leaving Visual Studio. View, edit, run, and debug unit test-style tests from the Test Window.

Open Source

Fork Python for Visual Studio on Github

Python Tools for Visual Studio is a completely free extension, developed and supported by Microsoft with contributions from the community. Visit our Github page to see or participate in PTVS development.

Additional Resources

Python Tools for Visual Studio Installation
Python Tools for Visual Studio Video Tutorial
Python Tools for Visual Studio Documentation