For everyone from enterprise programmers to data scientists, Python is one of the most popular dynamic languages for software development. Anaconda, the most popular Python data science platform, provides 6 million users with a streamlined Python environment on Windows, Mac or Linux. And starting today, Visual Studio Code, Microsoft’s free and cross-platform code editor, is included in the Anaconda distribution!

Visual Studio Code can easily be installed at the same time as Anaconda, providing a great editing and debugging experience for Python users, with special features tailor-made for Anaconda users. This is another example of Microsoft’s continued investment in the Python community, following our release of an official Python extension for VS Code, strong support for Python in Azure Machine Learning Studio and SQL Server, and Azure Notebooks, which has been increasingly adopted as a learning platform by leading universities such as the University of Cambridge. Microsoft is committed to helping Python developers build anywhere and on any platform.

The Microsoft Python Extension for Visual Studio Code is the heart of our Python experience. Its original creator now works full time on the extension, with the rest of our Python core developer team. Since creating a team around this beloved extension, we have extended support for Anaconda environments, streamlined its linting support, closed over 150 issues submitted by our great community, and we are only just getting started! The Microsoft Python Extension for Visual Studio Code is actively developed in our GitHub repository, and is the most downloaded extension in the VS Code marketplace with over 6 million downloads to-date, and a 4.7/5.0 rating.

Download Anaconda 5.1 now and check out the Visual Studio Code Python experience! Let us know what you think by providing us with feedback at our GitHub repository.