After formally announcing Visual Studio 2017 in November, Microsoft has officially launched the latest version of its integrated development environment today. Visual Studio celebrates its 20th anniversary this year - and unsurprisingly, the company is touting this newest edition as its best yet.
Microsoft says that this is its "most productive" version to date too. "Cloud and mobile development were top of mind as we built Visual Studio 2017," it said today. "For streamlined cloud development, built-in tools provide integration with all your .NET Core, Azure applications, microservices, Docker containers, and more." It added:
It is easier than ever to build and deploy applications and services to Azure, directly from the IDE. Visual Studio 2017 with Xamarin make it faster for you to create mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Windows through updates like advanced debugging and profiling tools.
On its site, Microsoft highlighted some of the key improvements in Visual Studio 2017, which it says delivers "unparalleled productivity for any dev, any app, and any platform":
New features, such as live dependency validation, help drive DevOps earlier in the development process. In addition, enhancements to popular features, like code navigation, IntelliSense, refactoring, and code fixes, save you time and effort, regardless of language or platform.
The entire debugging and test experience has been enhanced to help you find and address issues as early as possible. Features like Live Unit Testing, Exception Helpers, and Run to Click tighten your DevOps loop by reducing regression risks and immediately exposing the root cause of new bugs.
Built-in tools provide comprehensive integration with all of your .NET Core, Azure applications, services, Docker containers, and more. The experience is so seamless that you’ll feel like you’re working from inside an Azure datacenter.
Directly manage your team projects hosted by any provider, including Visual Studio Team Services, Team Foundation Server, or GitHub. Or use the new Open Any Folder feature to immediately open and work with virtually any code file without a formal project or solution around it.
With Xamarin’s advanced debugging, profiling tools, and unit test generation features, it’s faster and easier than ever for you to build, connect, and tune native mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Windows. You can also choose to develop mobile apps with Apache Cordova or build C++ cross platform libraries.
Visual Studio continues to invest in support for the latest programming language features. Whether working with C#, Visual Basic, C++, TypeScript, F#, or even third-party languages like JavaScript, you’ll find first-class feature support across the entire development experience.
Visual Studio is packed with tons of performance enhancements to the core features you use every day. You’ll also see a noticeably faster startup time, lower memory footprint, and higher degree of responsiveness throughout the entire development lifecycle.
Optimized for performance
A brand-new workload-based installer optimizes your install to make sure you have everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Together with Visual Studio Team Services and Team Foundation Server, seamlessly deliver software to any targeted platform. Extend DevOps processes to SQL Server through Redgate integration and safely automate database deployments from Visual Studio. Xamarin Test Recorder, together with Xamarin test cloud let you test on thousands of physical devices right from within the IDE.
Enjoy complementary access to training from top partners, including Pluralsight and Opsgility, for Enterprise and Professional customers. You’ll also get access to software licenses from select partners, such as Parallels and SyncFusion.
You can get a more detailed overview of some of the most significant improvements in Visual Studio 2017 in this Microsoft blog post.
Visual Studio 2017 is available to download now, including free trials of the Professional and Enterprise editions, and the full free download of the Community edition for students, open-source and individual developers.
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