Alright, something that’ll make your eyes glaze over faster than a math textbook MSVC Compiler! Relax, it’s all good, because we’re going to break it down in the most casual way possible.

To start, what is MSVC? It stands for Microsoft Visual Studio Compiler and it’s basically a tool that helps you compile your Python code into an executable file (or .exe). Why would you want to do this? Well, if you have a boss who insists on seeing your work in its final form or if you just prefer the convenience of having a standalone program instead of running it from within an IDE like PyCharm, MSVC is for you!

Now, which version of Microsoft Visual Studio to use. There are several options out there, but we recommend going with the Community edition because it’s free and has all the features you need (unless you work at a big corporation that already has a license for one of the paid versions).

But wait! If you prefer using an IDE like Visual Studio Code on Mac OS X or Linux, there are extensions available to help with Python debugging. This means you can have all the benefits of MSVC Compiler without having to switch over to Windows.

Next, save your Python file as a .py extension (e.g., my_program.py) and open it up in Visual Studio Code by clicking on File > Open… or just drag-and-drop your Python file into the IDE window.

Now comes the fun part compiling! Click on Terminal > Run Build Task (or press Ctrl + Shift + B if you’re using Windows) and watch as Visual Studio Code does its thing. If everything goes according to plan, you should see a new .exe file pop up in your project directory.

And that’s it! You now have a standalone Python program that can be run without any IDE or interpreter required. Pretty cool, huh?

Of course, there are some caveats to using MSVC Compiler for Python namely, the lack of debugging capabilities and the need to manually manage dependencies (which is why we recommend sticking with an IDE like PyCharm if you’re a serious programmer). But hey, sometimes it’s nice to have options!