Microsoft for Python Developers Blog
Read the latest updates about all things Python at Microsoft
Latest posts
Idiomatic Python: functions versus classes
In Python, everything is an object. Compared to Java which forces you to code everything in an object-oriented programming style but still has the concept of primitive types which are not objects on their own (although Java 5 added autoboxing to help hide this discrepancy), Python has no primitive types which aren't objects but provides the concept of functions to support procedural programming (Python also has minor support for functional programming but that's another conversation). While this dichotomy in Python of supporting both object-oriented and procedural programming allows using the right approach for t...
Python updates in Visual Studio 15.4 Preview 1
It's been a while since we last posted, and we've been hard at work on new features for Python in Visual Studio 2017. Today, the first preview of the next update has been released, which you can install from visualstudio.com or by updating your existing Preview install. In this post, we'll briefly discuss the new features in this preview, including the secret tricks and exclusive downloads you will need to enable some of them. Ctrl+Click Go To Definition Over the new update you should see this feature coming to most languages in Visual Studio, but we are excited that Python is one of the first to get it. ...
PyData Seattle is next week!
Next week, we'll be hosting PyData Seattle 2017 at Microsoft. Several hundred attendees, speakers and teachers will converge on our main conference center for three days of talks, tutorials, and other fun. What is PyData? PyData is a regular conference that occurs all around the world multiple times every year. With a focus on data science, and an abundance of Python, it is one of the most relevant conferences in our field at the moment. Sponsored by NumFOCUS, PyData conferences showcase the latest developments in libraries, tools, practices and services, presented by the developers and practitioners who creat...
PyCon US 2017 wrap-up
Last week we took our Python team on the road to PyCon US 2017, which was held in Portland, Oregon, USA. PyCon is our best opportunity for our engineers to meet the broad range of people who make up the Python community. We love the chance to hang out at our booth, meet and chat with anyone who comes by, and show off the things we've been working on. This year, we had engineers from all over Microsoft representing many different projects. These included Python in SQL Server 2017, Azure Data Lake, Visual Studio 2017, Azure Notebooks, the Azure SDK for Python, Bash for Windows and more. If you missed seeing...
Come visit us at PyCon US 2017!
With PyCon US 2017 happening later this week, we wanted to let you know what we will be up to at the conference! To start, thanks to our platinum sponsorship this year, we are going to have a booth in the exhibit hall. This will provide you a place to come if you have any questions involving Python and Microsoft. We are also going to have a constant rotation of 10 and 20 minute demos at our booth that will include: Come by our booth to see the schedule for when we will be demoing what! But our participation doesn't stop at sponsorship and demos. Both Steve Dower and myself w...
Python support is now stable in Visual Studio 2017
Today we have released our next update to Visual Studio 2017, and it's the one you've been waiting for. As of today, the Python development and Data Science and Analytical Applications workloads are stable and ready for production use. You can read our post on the Visual Studio blog for an overview of what is new, and we will release a detailed blog in the next few days, but right now, I want to walk through how to install Python support in Visual Studio 2017. [Edit May 15th] Our blog A Lap around Python in Visual Studio 2017 is now available over on the main Visual Studio blog. You can use the links bel...
Python tools in your language
This week we've released a preview of the next update to Visual Studio. It has all of the improvements that were released recently in VS 2017 Update 1, and also the earliest previews of VS 2017 Update 2. For Python support, probably our most significant update is that we are now available in all fourteen languages that Visual Studio ships with. We're really excited to be making our tooling available to more people all around the world. While Python itself is predominantly English, many developers are able to get by without fluency. The same also applies for Visual Studio, but it is a much more pleasant exp...
Interactive Windows in VS 2017
Last week we announced that the Python development workload is available now in Visual Studio Preview, and briefly covered some of the new improvements in Visual Studio 2017. In this post, we are going to go into more depth on the improvements for the Python Interactive Window. These are currently available in Visual Studio Preview, and will become available in one of the next updates to the stable release. Over the lifetime of Visual Studio 2017 we will have opportunities to further improve these features, so please provide feedback and suggestions at our GitHub site. Interactive Windows People who have bee...
Released: Python support in Visual Studio 2017
Today is launch day for Visual Studio 2017, and you can see all the info and join the live event at launch.visualstudio.com. But over in this corner of our world, we are announcing something special. As you likely know, once software is officially released, it normally gets less frequent updates. For those of us who love getting new toys, this can be disappointing after an update-packed preview phase. For Visual Studio 2017, we significantly improved our install experience and added scenario-specific workloads, but also made it easier for us to service the product. This means everyone will see more frequent upda...
