Python Support in Visual Studio

By Michael Foord -
Many .NET developers (all too many alas) are not willing (or not allowed) to use any language that isn't integrated into Visual Studio. As IronPython is a dynamically typed language it is much harder to build full support into Visual Studio - although there have been two attempts so far (the SDK for Visual Studio 2005 and IronPython Studio for Visual Studio 2008).

In this blog entry Dave Fugate (IronPython tester and infrastructure guy for Microsoft) explains the current state of VS support for Python and as Visual Studio 2010 approaches he looks to the future...
I think I speak for everyone on the IronPython Team when I say we’d love to see IronPython support in Visual Studio by default without the need for any language service addition. The thing is these types of decisions are made at a much higher level than us and are heavily influenced by business needs. What I’m getting at here is if enough people provided feedback via the proper channels that:
  • The next version of VS is great, but it’d be better if it supported Python development
  • You don’t currently use VS but you would if it had Python support
  • Ahem…you’d be willing to pay for IronPython support in VS
  • Etc
then the next version of VS could very well have Python support built into it. What are the proper channels for feedback you ask? The VS 2010 feedback page would be a great start.
If you're looking for an IDE for working with IronPython the best option currently is probably SharpDevelop, which has great IronPython integration.

Comments

  1. Shimmy5/25/2010 12:43 am

    Shame on Microsoft.
    We do have to go to SharpDevelop!
    They really disapointed this time adding F# (fuckin sharp) instead Python.

    Who for god's sake even cares about F#??

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael Foord5/25/2010 12:45 am

    Actually the IronPython team has now released an alpha version of "IronPython Tools for Visual Studio" which gives very good integration for IronPython into Visual Studio 2010 and is being actively developed.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Extending Abobe Flash Player and AIR with Python and Ruby

By Michael Foord -
An intriguing blog entry about an Adobe experimental project. It is a C/C++ cross- compiler for the flash player and AIR. This means that you can (will be able to?) cross-compile the Python / Ruby/ lots of other language runtimes and then run them in Flash. The blog entry contrasts this approach to the DLR which requires the re-implementation of dynamic languages - hence IronPython and IronRuby. The project is already beyond proof-of concept, they even have Quake III cross-compiled and running in Flash. Extending Adobe Flash Player and AIR with C/C++ Cross-Compiler Quake 3 has already been ported to managed code , but this is even more impressive. Whether the Python interpreter can be cross-compiled to run on top of another runtime (with completely different basic types), without changing the language semantics at all, has yet to be proved - but it is a very interesting project. (It also means that Python/Ruby will possibly be enabled only by additional optional downloads - but don'
Read more

IronPython Tools for Visual Studio CTP3

By Michael Foord -
At PyCon this year Dino Veihland announced IronPython Tools for Visual Studio, an extension to Visual Studio 2010 for working with IronPython. It features Python syntax highlighting, awesome auto-complete (intellisense) and a host of other features for working with IronPython code in Visual Studio. It can be used with the free Visual Studio shell and doesn't require you to own a full copy of Visual Studio. The third CTP (Community Technology Preview) has been made available for download. IronPython Tools for Visual Studio We are happy to announce a minor update to the IronPython Tools for Visual Studio.  IronPython Tools for Visual Studio (IPyTools) is a set of extensions available for Visual Studio 2010 which supports development of IronPython applications.  This release is our 3rd Community Technical Preview (CTP) and builds upon the previous two releases.  The release is a minor update which includes bug fixes and a number of small features.  You can download the latest rel
Read more

Further Adventures of the Debugger

By Michael Foord -
Harry Pierson (Microsoft IronPython PM) has been experimenting with writing an IronPython debugger ( ipydbg ) on top of the .NET MDbg APIs. When we last left him , he had implemented Just My Code (JMC) support allowing you to step into IronPython code. Since then he has made a lot of progress including a colourful REPL (interactive console) and solving some difficult problems around getting to real values behind boxed IronPython variables (needed for showing local variables). He has blogged extensively on what he has been up to (more recent posts last): Showing Source Code Colorful Console IronPython ConsoleColorMgr (the colorful console code pulled out into a separate IronPython module) A Little Hack...err...Cleanup Getting Local Variables Displaying Values Command Routing Getting Arguments REPL Console A lot of functionality is now present. In the command routing entry Harry outlines the seven commands supported by the debugger so far: Continue, Quit, Show Stack Trace, Show Locals,
Read more