VS incorrectly identifies Python 3.7 as 2.5 or earlier, prevents debugging

[cowlinator]

In VS, when selecting Python 3.7 or a 3.7 virtual environment as my python environment, I cannot debug my python scripts. I get the error message "Debugging is not supported for Python 2.5 and earlier".

I do not (and never had) python 2.5 or earlier installed on this machine.

I have installed both python 2.7 (first) and python 3.7 (later). I believe I installed 3.7 after PTVS.

[cowlinator]

I just noticed that the "Properties" panel for Python 3.7 shows "Version 0.0" for Python 3.7. I'm sure it's probably related.

[huguesv]

Could you please check the version of VS in the About Box? If you're not on 15.8.x, then it's possible the that Python 3.7 support wasn't all in yet.

A workaround for incorrectly detected environments is to add them as custom environments. You can set the language to 3.6 for a close enough approximation.

[cowlinator]

Didn't try a custom environment, but my VS version was VS 15.2, and after upgrading to 15.8.9, the error disappeared. Thanks!

It makes sense that the user is required to use the latest VS version, but that error message is very misleading.

[KonssnoK]

the same is happening for python 3.8 in VS 15.9.23

Switching the project to python 3.6 solved the issue.

[deepika45]

@KonssnoK , does switching to python 3.6 needs me to install python 3.6 on top of python 3.8?

[KonssnoK]

@deepika45 i had it already available,
I guess it's the Standard visual studio installation (looking at paths)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64\

Python 3.8 was the one installed over 3.6 in my case :)
C:\Programs\Python38-32

[deepika45]

@deepika45 i had it already available,
I guess it's the Standard visual studio installation (looking at paths)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Shared\Python36_64\

Python 3.8 was the one installed over 3.6 in my case :)
C:\Programs\Python38-32

Worked for me. Thnx!

[aw2003]

Still seen in VS2017 15.9.24 / Python 3.8.1. VS environment for Python 3.8 won't work, have to create custom and label it as 3.6 while pointing to 3.8 binaries. can you fix this??