Python IDE built into Visual Studio 2008?

Question

Hi I develop in Visual Studio 2008 a lot and would like to find an addin like vsphp which enables intellisense and debugging in Visual Studio. Is IronStudio what I am looking for? As far as I understand IronStudio is a Plugin for .NET.

If there is no Plugin for Visual Studio 2008 whats a great IDE for a python newbee who loves Visual Studio (hate netbeans and eclipse sorry just don't feel the love)

Also if IronPython Studio is an IDE do I want the Isolated or Integrated Version? I don't seem to understand the name.

I installed integrated and got this: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/5910/Jing/2009-02-11_1750.png :( no console like here: http://www.codeplex.com/IronPythonStudio

Answer 1

I had a similar dilemma when I first started writing in Python. I couldn't find any plugins for VS so I tried a few alternatives:

• IDLE - comes packaged with Python and works but felt very cludgy to me
• Wingware Python IDE - not free, but seemed to have pretty good debugging capabilities
• e-texteditor - has nice syntax highlighting but running Python script from it frequently causes issues.
• Eclipse with PyDev - is what I now use - syntax highlighting, auto-completion, debugging capabilities etc. etc.

There's a couple of reviews of options that might be of use to you:

• Jonathan Ellis's Programming Blog
• Wikipedia

Personally, I'd recommend Eclipse + PyDev :-)

[Edit] Iron Python looks pretty cool - might have to check that one out! [/Edit]

Answer 2

Provided that you have Visual Studio 2008 and the VS 2k8 Shell Integrated Redistributable package, IronPython Studio Integrated will plug into the VS 2k8 IDE.

Visual Studio 2008 Shell (Integrated)

Visual Studio 2010 beta 2 Shell (Integrated)

Answer 3

Have a look at PyScripter, I haven't tried it extensively but heard good things about it.

It's not an addon to Visual Studio, it's an independent IDE.

Answer 4

I'll second one of Jon's suggestions: PyDev and Eclipse. This is great if you are already using Eclipse for other development.

You can grab it (and links to the Eclipse platform) from here: http://pydev.sourceforge.net/download.html

Answer 5

Java based IDE's are no good they tend to be fat, slow, and unpolished. Eclipse has a poor programming paradigm that is unnecesarrily confusing. The many IDE vendors made a mistake by quitting their native products and basing them instead on Eclipse. They can't differentiate themselves and the experience is awful. Real shame actually. VS needs competition but they all rolled over and died.

Answer 6

IronPython tools for Visual Studio 2010. is fairly well intergrated. I know you asked for 2008 but now that 2010 is out ;)