How Do Python Tools for Visual Studio Help in Improving the Development Process?

Believe it or not, automation is trending, and its prominence will continue in the future. These days, all top Python development companies are looking to automate the maximum of their coding processesto gain the highest level of accuracy, save time and money, and achieve ultimate customer satisfaction. 

For that purpose, Python Tools for Visual Studio has gained the highest popularity amidst all the technological advancements. Here in this article, we will discuss in detail Python Tools for Visual Studio, which will help you speed up your Python development process, ultimately enabling you to save time, money, and effort, leading to higher productivity, efficiency, and profitability.

Before we grab complete information about Python Tools for Visual Studio, let's have basic information about these concepts individually.

What is Python?

Python is one of the most favored programming languages which is known for its simplicity and ease of use. It is a powerful language driven by a community contributing to open-source projects. Moreover, this high-level programming language is used for general-purpose, i.e. you can develop web services, build even complex software, train machine learning models, and even perform data analysis and visualization.

As per a recent report, Python is the third-most popular programming language among developers worldwide as of 2024.

Below are some key characteristics of the Python programming language.

Key Characteristics of Python

Easy to Understand: Python is simple for even beginners to use as its code is simple to read and comprehend.

Supports Object Oriented Programming: Python supports object oriented programming, enabling you to organize your code into reusable objects.

Uses Dynamic Typing: In python language, you don't need to specify data type of variables before using them as it uses dynamic typing.

Multi-Purpose Language: Python is a programming language which can be used to develop different types of web applications, data analysis tools, machine learning applications, scientific computing applications, and other automation tools.

Now, let's have a look at what Visual Studio is and its key features.

What is Visual Studio?

Visual Studio is an integrated development environments (IDE) used by developers to build, debug, and deploy applications for different operating systems like Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. Visual Studio can also help create native and managed code. It applied a wide range of Microsoft software development platforms like Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Microsoft Store, and Microsoft Silverlight.

Below are some of the key features of Visual Studio:

Key Features of Visual Studio

Visual Studio is a feature-rich development platform that allows developers to build high-quality code efficiently and collaboratively.

Code Editor: Visual Studio includes a built-in powerful code editor with IntelliSense, syntax highlighting, and refactoring tools.

Version Control Integration: Visual Studio supports GIT and many other version control systems to manage changes in source code.

Debugging: Visual Studio includes ultra-modern debugging features that help developers to detect variables, step through code, and set new breakpoints.

Customization and Extensions: Visual Studio includes a rich system of customizations and extensions that enable developers enhance the functionality of the application they are building.

Multiple Language Support: Visual Studio allows developers to build apps in multiple languages like C#, VB.NET, C++, F#, and more.

Excellent Collaboration: Visual Studio allows developers to collaborate with each other, enabling them to share and edit code in real-time.

Now that we have basic information about Python and Visual Studio, let's move on to knowing what are python tools for Visual Studio and how they help in improving the development process.

About Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS)

Python tools for Visual Studio is a powerful extension that integrates Python language with Visual Studio IDE. It includes feature rich tools specifically designed to make python coding easier and quicker. Currently, Python Tools for Visual Studio has become the most preferable choice for Python developers for building web and mobile applications.

This free, open-source plug-in by Microsoft turns the already powerful Visual Studio into a full-fledged Python IDE. To name just a few, this provides IntelliSense for code suggestions, integrated debugging, and support for frameworks like Django and Flask. This means I can even work with different Python interpreters, like CPython or IronPython, which is really useful, depending on what exactly I'm trying to create. In addition, it allows smooth cloud computing and remote debugging. - Habibur Rahman (Co-Founder and COO of AIBuster)

Below are some of the functionalities that Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) offers:


Let's now have a look at the 10 best Python Tools for Visual Studio.

10 Best Python Tools for Visual Studio

Python Tools for Visual Studio provide excellent development environments for developers. By leveraging the strengths of Python and Visual Studio, you can enhance productivity within your development processes, gain cleaner codes, and build robust applications for your clients, which leads to better returns on your investment. Below mentioned are the 10 best Python Tools for Visual Studio that you can consider for your web and mobile application development projects.

#1 Python IntelliSense

Use: Code Editing and Intellisense

Python IntelliSense is a tool that can help developers in writing codes quicker and more accurately. It provides suggestions as you type the code and at the same time offers relevant options depending on the code context. It is one of the best Python tools for Visual Studio that provides intelligent code completion.

Benefits of Using Python IntelliSense

  • Helps beginners to learn to code easily
  • Speeds up the coding process
  • Improves the code quality
Its smart code completion and quick suggestions are a huge time-saver, especially when working with complex codebases or switching between multiple projects. It's like having an extra set of eyes on your work, helping avoid simple mistakes and keeping things efficient. - Dane Nk (Founder of The VideoGame Blog)

#2 Python Interactive Window

Use: Debugging

Python Interactive Window has proven to be an extremely useful tool for many developers as it allows them to execute Python code directly in the editor without creating a project or file. It helps in experimenting with Python code, test snippets, debug code sections, and learn the language interactively.

Benefits of Using Python IntelliSense

  • Provides accurate suggestions and thus reduces errors.
  • Automates code formatting as per predefined styles, ensuring consistency throughout the project.
  • Detects errors early in the development process, saving time and effort while debugging.

The Interactive Window is another gem, functioning like a REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop) directly within Visual Studio. It allows immediate feedback on code snippets, making it ideal for experimenting with libraries or debugging code sections without running the entire program. - Simon Lee (CEO of Glance).

#3 Python Test Explorer

Use: Testing

Python Test Explorer is a tool that includes a convenient interface for testing Python projects. It integrates easily with Python testing frameworks like unittest, nose, pytest, etc., making it seamless to write, manage, and organize tests. It also allows debugging failing tests directly within Visual Studio, making it simple to detect and solve issues.

Benefits of Using Python Test Explorer

  • Ensures reliability in coding as it has been thoroughly tested.
  • Helps team members to understand the code in a better way and collaborate more effectively.
  • It makes automated testing possible, resulting in saving time and money.

Python Test Explorer for unit testing is the one of the most well-liked utilities as it can lead to higher code quality and faster debugging cycles. - Muhammad Ummar Rashid (SEO Specialist at Digital Willow).

#4 GitHub Extension

Use: Integrating

The GitHub extension for Visual Studio offers a seamless integration with GitHub, which allows developers to manage their Git repositories directly from the IDE. It includes a wide range of features that simplify workflow and enhance collaboration experience.

Benefits of GitHub Extension

  • Simplifies Git operations like cloning repositories, committing changes, and pushing to remote repositories.
  • Allows creating, reviewing, and merging pull requests, making collaboration with team members more efficient.
  • Improves productivity by streamlining Git operations and providing contextual information which helps in developing code quickly with minimal or no flaws.

With the GitHub extension, I can easily manage repositories, track issues, and coordinate pull requests within Visual Studio. For instance, during a recent update to our database interface, my team and I used the extension to streamline our workflow. Tracking our code changes and resolving merge conflicts efficiently improved our release cycle time by nearly 35%. This enhanced our team's productivity and ensured that our updates were seamlessly integrated into our existing platform. - Rhett Crites (Founder of Theme Park Brochures).

#5 Azure Machine Learning for Visual Studio Code

Use: Machine Learning

Azure Machine Learning (AML) is a cloud-based platform that allows building, training, deploying, and managing ,machine learning solutions. This tool, when integrated with Visual Studio, offers a comfortable, and powerful environment for machine learning engineers and data scientists to come up with unique, useful and highly innovative solutions with extraordinary features.

Benefits of Azure Machine Learning for Visual Studio Code

  • It allows for the handling of complex models and large datasets without worrying about hardware limitations.
  • Supports effective collaboration among team members, making it seamless to share experiments, models, and results.
  • Ensures efficient use of resources as it manages resource allocation based on your project requirements and workload.

Azure Machine Learning for Visual Studio Code, which allows us to build, test, and deploy machine learning solutions directly within the IDE. This integration with Azure has been particularly beneficial for automating tasks like document classification and analysis, saving us time and reducing the chance of human error. - Steve Sacona (Founder of Top10Lawyers)

#6 Visual Studio IntelliCode

Use: Productivity Boosters

Visual Studio Intellicode is a powerful AI tool that provides relevant code suggestions, and snippets and thus helps in coding quickly and flawlessly. It applies machine learning to analyze coding patterns and context to offer extremely accurate recommendations.

Benefits of Visual Studio IntelliCode

  • Enables faster coding ensuring that developers follow required coding conventions and best practices, leading to cleaner and more maintainable code.
  • Helps teams to maintain excellent code readability and detect errors in the starting phase itself.
  • Automatically formats code as per predefined styles, ensuring consistency throughout the project.

Visual Studio IntelliCode is a useful tool providing AI-powered suggestions to help you write code faster by learning your patterns and habits. This can save a lot of time during development. - Ally Moisse (Head of Digital PR & SEO at Pearl Lemon).

#7 Black

Use: Code Formatter

Black is one of the most powerful Python tools for Visual Studio, and it helps with consistent code formatting and enhances code readability. By integrating this Python tool into your Visual Studio workflow, developers can maintain a clean and professional codebase.

Benefits of Black

  • It helps maintain code consistency and improve readability.
  • Saves time by automating the code formatting process.
  • Standardizes coding style, which makes it easier for developers to collaborate, read, and understand each other's code.

This code formatter is a must for me. It ensures consistent style across my projects, which makes the code more readable and easier to maintain. - Villiam Karasti (SEO Consultant at Pardott).

#8 Jupyter Notebooks

Use: Data Analysis

Jupyter Notebooks is a robust tool that specializes in data science and beyond. It is well-known for creating computing environments that combine code execution, visualizations, and narrative text in a single document. Data scientists, researchers, and educators prefer this tool due to its flexibility and ease of use.

Benefits of Jupyter Notebooks

  • It allows visualizing results instantly after entering code cells, making it easy to learn and experiment.
  • It facilitates excellent collaboration and sharing.
  • It supports multiple programming languages besides Python, such as R, Julia, and Scala.

Using Jupyter Notebooks, I can run data analysis directly within Visual Studio, which simplifies tracking sales trends and customer preferences. Recently, I analyzed seasonal sales data and visualized the impact of our promotional campaigns in real-time. The interactive nature of Jupyter allows me to experiment with different datasets, facilitating quick adjustments to our marketing strategies. This has led to a 22% increase in our targeted ad effectiveness, enabling us to reach our audience more efficiently. - Matt Little (Founder and Managing Director at Festoon House)

#9 Python for Visual Studio Code (VSCode)

Use: Integration

Python for Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is an excellent tool that integrates python capabilities with Visual Studio IDE. It includes a rich set of features and tools specifically designed to make the job of python developers easier and quicker. This has made it the most popular choice while building Python applications.

Benefits of Python for Visual Studio Code (VSCode)

  • It includes an in-built debugger that helps identify errors in the Python application and ensures its flawless execution.
  • Allows writing and running unit tests directly within Visual Studio Code's Test Explorer window.
  • Enables cross-platform development using the same interface, saving time and money.

Code completion and project management are the target audience of that pop-up. But it integrates so well I'd say it's a must-have if you're using social media APIs or automation. - Taylor Moore (Co-founder of Teasy Agency).

#10 Visual Studio Live Share

Visual Studio Live Share is one of the most powerful team collaboration tools that enables developers to share their coding environments on a real-time basis. It allows multiple developers to work on the same project at the same time, regardless of their physical location or the devices they are using.

Benefits of Visual Studio Live Share

  • It enhances collaboration and allows developers to work more efficiently on complex projects.
  • It improves code review efficiency and reduces context switching.
  • It helps in sharing knowledge and expertise within a team and improves real-time assistance to beginners.

Real-time, seamless collaboration in Python development is made possible with "Visual Studio Live Share", which increases team productivity. Without requiring file syncing, many developers can collaborate on the same Python code, sharing screens and making changes at the same time. Team members can work together to debug code, respond quickly to problems, and come up with solutions while interacting in the present moment. - Jeffrey Zhou (CEO and Founder of Fig Loans).

Conclusion

These 10 essential Python Tools for Visual Studio can help you in providing flawless and impeccable software, web, and mobile app development services. The right set of tools can be your developers' ally, therefore leading to improved quality, speed, and efficiency in your projects. Even if you are planning to outsource your web development or mobile app development services, make sure your technology partner uses the right Python Tools for Visual Studio that drive you towards success in achieving your business goals.