In March, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2017, the latest and greatest version of its integrated development environment, for Windows devices. Last month, it delivered a preview of version 15.2, and today, that version has become generally available.
Key changes in Visual Studio 2017 version 15.2 include:
- Data science and analytical applications workload has been added.
- The Python development workload is now localized in all supported Visual Studio language packs.
- Side-by-side support for TypeScript compiler versions.
- You can now pass command line debug arguments in JavaScript UWP applications. This was previously available for C#, VB, and C++ UWP applications. Note: There is an issue with passing command line arguments to the Simulator in this release.
- Multiple Team Explorer fixes.
- You can now change the location of where packages are cached or even disable caching of packages during install, modify, or repair.
- Multiple F# tools improvements.
- CMake integration now supports CMake 3.7.2. This updated CMake menu is based on your feedback.
- Linux C++ now enables improved type visualization during debugging.
- Fixed issue where Visual Studio 2017 may not launch when installed alongside Visual Studio 2005 or earlier.
- The Game Development with Unity workload now offers to install Unity 5.6.
Additionally, Microsoft announced at its Build 2017 developer conference today that Visual Studio version 15.3 Preview is now available, bringing "bug fixes, improvements in accessibility, and new functionality".
Microsoft explained that this includes ".NET Core 2.0 preview support, Live Unit Testing for .NET Core projects, more C++ standard conformance, enhancement in continuous delivery for ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core projects targeting an Azure App Services, and improvements in container development tools."
Finally, the company introduced its new cloud debugging experience, Visual Studio Snapshot Debugger, which offers developers "deep insight into production code behavior at the time of an exception, without writing extensive logging statements or exception handling code".
Meanwhile, the company is also making Visual Studio for Mac generally available from today,