Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Visual Studio may gain AI smarts around available code

news
May 17, 20171 min

The experimental technology could assist in code analysis, but there’s no timeline for its release

microsoft visual studio 2017
Credit: IDG

Microsoft is eying artificial intelligence capabilities to give its Visual Studio IDE a greater grasp of the available code for a project.

Currently in an experimental phase, Visual Studio’s use of AI may enable code analysis, tapping sources ranging from the developer’s code repo to project code to perhaps even GitHub repos under a developer’s jurisdiction. Microsoft is pondering just how many code sources should be considered.

The company has no timetable for when AI might appear in the Visual Studio IDE.

Microsoft is also considering ways to improve Visual Studio’s refactoring, which is about modifying code to make it easier to maintain and extend. Other areas of exploration include supporting developers on any platform, team development, and tuning the IDE for devops.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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