Python is an excellent teaching programming language. It has all the tools to inspire students out of the box with plenty to grow on.

Development requires a basic understanding of computer science  but will teach essentials for large scale software development, object oriented design, polymorphism, and development environments.

I like python. The Zen is magnificent. It inspires me every time I practice and learn.

Microsoft arrives in the form of PTVS (Python Tools for Visual Studio) a powerful extension for Visual Studio that can be installed in all Versions of VS.

PTVS turns Visual Studio into a Python Dev Environment. Complete with Debugging, in window REPL (with autocomplete assistance), IntelliSense, configurable environments and virtual environments.

Its an extremely powerful tool. While getting into PTVS I would recommend watching these two videos:

The second one especially will help you get a grip on how to configure development environments in Python, one of the most crucial parts of taking development to the next level.

Also, configuration of PIP, Setuptools, and virtualenv is all handled for you from there. Its freakin sweet. You can do all of this for free with Visual Studio Express.

Other helpful resources: Python the Hard Way Scott Hanselman’s Blog about PTVS Pluralsight Subscribers Python Tools for Visual Studio Somasegar’s Post!

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[caption id=”attachment_881” align=”aligncenter” width=”300”]9 Frisbees on Thumbtacks We’ve started a Frisbee wall! FUNctional storage. [/caption]