Microsoft Announces Final Release of Python Tools 2.1 for Visual Studio

Microsoft has made available the final release of Python Tools 2.1 for Visual Studio (PTVS) which is now available for download. PTVS is available for Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2012, and Visual Studio 2013. PTVS 2.1 supports the free Visual Studio Express for Web and Express for Windows Desktop editions as well as Visual Studio Professional and higher.

PTVS offers an advanced IDE experience for general scripting, web programming, and technical computing. With integrated IPython REPL support for smart history, shell commands and inline images, these tools provide a convenient exploratory coding environment. And with features such as mixed mode debugging of Python with C++ and remote debugging of Linux servers in Azure, Visual Studio provides a productive development environment for Python developers.

The primary focus of this release is web development. This means developers can use PTVS to build websites using popular frameworks such as Django, Bottle, and Flask and PTVS supplies starter templates to get going faster.

Each template gives provides all the scaffolding needed to create a website in Azure quickly. PTVS supports Cloud Service, Web, and Worker Roles as well. There is also a “generic” web framework template that can be used for frameworks such as Pyramid. And for Django, which is a web/CMS framework, PTVS has special support for template IntelliSense and debugging.

The Python Tools for Visual Studio are open source (Apache 2.0) and hosted on CodePlex.