Preface

Like many other developers, Python developers have always had to find ways to manage the development workflow between different tools. Most of the time, this happens without using a comprehensive guide that is available in a complete IDE which is specifically designed for Python development.

The rare, exceptional IDEs that offer complete guides are often expensive and don't provide hands-on steps to help speed up the development process.

Visual Studio, as a matured and well-developed tool over the last few decades, has dominated the market of compiled languages and languages that are strictly oriented toward Windows and .NET. Packed with handy tools and functionalities to speed up and facilitate the workflow of developers, it helps users to render repetitive tasks, manage projects, and provide a detailed outlook into the structure of a project. However, most importantly, it helps users gain a clear view into the inner structure of the code.

In the last few years, Microsoft has started exploring how to integrate new languages into Visual Studio; as a result, Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) was developed. It's a well-developed tool that is already on its second release and is commonly used by professional developers as their new IDE of choice for Python projects.

PTVS has everything that a Python developer can dream of: consistent project files management, interactive debugging and code completion features with the rock solid Microsoft IntelliSense technology, project templates, a first-class Django integration package, virtual environment management right in the IDE for REPL, and a native code-based IDE that loads and reacts fast.

This book will focus more on the integration of Python in Visual Studio than the language itself. It will try to delve into the power offered by the tool and venture into the feasibility of its day-to-day usage for a developer. We will show real examples of how to use PTVS with Django and how to deal with occasional difficulties when it comes to integrating well-known libraries into a Python project on Microsoft Windows.