Last year at Build, we launched Visual Studio for Mac, our native macOS IDE for developers building cloud, web, and mobile applications using .NET. Updates have been rolling out at a steady pace ever since, and we’re excited to announce the release of Visual Studio for Mac version 7.5. We have also continued to bring more Visual Studio 2017 code to the Mac.
Our mission has always been to delight developers, and we have something for everyone in this release. You can get started by downloading the new release or updating your existing install to the latest build in the Stable channel.
Here are some of the features we’re most excited to share with you:
- ASP.NET Core developers now have full Razor editor support. We’ve also introduced JavaScript and TypeScript support.
- For iOS developers, we added WiFi debugging support for iOS and tvOS applications. We also improved the iOS provisioning system.
- Android developers will enjoy the new Android SDK manager built right into the IDE, as well as a device manager to keep track of all your devices and emulators
- Xamarin.Forms developers will enjoy an improved XAML editing experience
- Cloud developers have support for Azure Functions development using .NET Core.
- We support .NET Core 2.1 RC and C# 7.2.
- Code-styling rules can be configured per-project using .editorconfig files.
- A preview of Team Foundation Version Control support for Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Team Services is now available.
We’re also shipping improvements to performance and stability, accessibility, and multi-language support, along with fixes for a number of bugs reported by our vibrant developer community. You can find the full list of changes in our release notes.
ASP.NET Core development with Razor, JavaScript, and TypeScript Editor Support
We partnered with the Roslyn and Visual Studio JavaScript tooling teams to reuse Razor, JavaScript, and TypeScript editor source code, bringing the editing experiences you know and love from Visual Studio 2017 to the Mac.
Official Razor support includes IntelliSense and syntax highlighting in .cshtml files
Our JavaScript editor has been rewritten to provide the core editor experience you expect, including IntelliSense, enhanced colorization, and brace completion. We’ve also added TypeScript editing support, which shares the same IntelliSense and colorization as our JavaScript experience.
Use .editorconfig files to Set Code Style Rules in Projects
One of my favorite features is finally here: .editorconfig
Visual Studio for Mac will now format your code following the conventions specified in the .editorconfig file. This will allow you to set your coding style, preferences, and warnings for your project; making it simpler for code that you contribute to other projects to follow the practices of those projects.
Xamarin.Form Development
We now ship Xamarin.Forms templates that take advantage of .NET Standard Libraries.
Working with XAML just got better, too, with IntelliSense improvements providing better support for self-closing elements and more completions.
Android Development with Xamarin
On the Android side of the house, we added an integrated Android Device Manager dialog, eliminating the need to rely upon 3rd-party tools for device and emulator management. You can find this under Tools > Device Manager.
iOS Development with Xamarin
iOS fans will enjoy a streamlined Entitlements editor experience, making it a breeze to add capabilities and services to your iOS apps.
Simply open the Entitlements.plist file and jump right in! Not only that, our new Automatic Signing experience makes deploying your application to devices very simple. In the Signing section of the Info.plist editor, you’ll find using Automatic Signing makes the burdens of manually tracking your entitlements and provisioning devices things of the past.
Building Serverless solutions with Azure Functions
Our new Azure Functions templates now support the Azure Functions .NET Core SDK, empowering you to build, debug, and test Azure Functions locally. In addition, item templates provide guidance for building functions using the most common triggers, enabling you to get up and running with new functions in minutes.
After creating a new Azure Functions project, right-click and select Add > Add Function, then choose your favorite function from the template dialog. Check out our documentation for a walkthrough to create your first Function in Azure.
.NET Core 2.1 RC and C# 7.2
Visual Studio for Mac version 7.5 now supports .NET Core 2.1 RC. Major improvements include faster build performance, better compatibility with .NET Framework, and closing gaps in both ASP.NET Core and EF Core. You can read more about the .NET Core 2.1 RC release in the announcement blog post. Support for the newest C# release, version 7.2, is also available today.
Working with your source with Team Foundation Version Control
One of our most popular feature requests has been to add support for Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) to access source saved in Team Foundation Server or Visual Studio Team Services. We heard you loud and clear! Today, we’re previewing a new extension to do just that.
To install the extension, navigate to Visual Studio > Extensions… in the Visual Studio for Mac menu and search the gallery for “TFVC”. We support Get, Commit (with associated work items), version history, and more.
Feedback
We hope you’ll find Visual Studio for Mac version 7.5 as delightful as we do. Let us know what you think! Your feedback helps us improve our products and better understand your needs as a developer.
Please let us know about issues via Help > Report a Problem. You’ll be able to track your issues and receive updates in the Visual Studio Developer Community.
You can also provide product suggestions via the Help > Provide a Suggestion menu and vote on suggestions at the Visual Studio for Mac UserVoice site.
Miguel de Icaza
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Miguel de Icaza, , Distinguished Engineer, Mobile Developer Tools @migueldeicaza Miguel is a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, focused on the mobile platform and creating delightful developer tools. With Nat Friedman, he co-founded both Xamarin in 2011 and Ximian in 1999. Before that, Miguel co-founded the GNOME project in 1997 and has directed the Mono project since its creation in 2001, including multiple Mono releases at Novell. Miguel has received the Free Software Foundation 1999 Free Software Award, the MIT Technology Review Innovator of the Year Award in 1999, and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 innovators for the new century in September 2000. |