Paul Krill
Editor at Large

What’s new in Microsoft Visual Studio for Mac

news
Aug 22, 20182 mins

Version 7.6 improves code editing and Azure capabilities

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Credit: FirmBee

Microsoft has released Visual Studio for Mac Version 7.6, focused on reliability, particularly in code editing.

Improvements also have been made in performance and support for Azure cloud functions. New templates enable publishing of a function to Azure. But Microsoft emphasized code editing with the Version 7.6 release.

Improvements in the code editing include:

  • JavaScript syntax highlighting has been improved.
  • IntelliSense has been improved for developers using the F# language, with the resolution of an issue in which “.” could not be used for autocompletion.
  • An IntelliSense problem was fixed in which red squiggles persisted even when there were no errors,
  • A fix was made to an issue in which Quick Fix items were not being displayed if source analysis was disabled.
  • A situation where tooltips would not disappear was fixed.

For the IDE, Microsoft improved tag-based classification for C#, reusing Visual Studio for Windows code. This is expected to improve typing performance in the editor. Also, to speed up NuGet restore on solution loads, no-op restore of NuGet packages is supported during opening of a solution. Startup time has been improved in the IDE and memory consumption reduced.

For Azure Functions, providing event-driven compute services on demand in a serverless fashion, Version 7.6 has templates for configuring access rights, connection strings, and other binding properties. The upgrade also lets developers publish functions to the Azure Portal. Developers can right-click on project name and choose Publish > Publish to Azure.

Where to download Visual Studio for Mac

You can download Visual Studio for Mac from Microsoft’s Visual Studio project site.

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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