Visual Studio 2017 Generally Available

Visual Studio (VS) 2017 became generally available in Mar. 2017, bringing improvements to many areas of the Windows-based integrated development environment (IDE). The release delivers new features for mobile and cloud application development, DevOps processes (which enable development and IT teams to work together closely to deploy software frequently), and developer productivity. Performance is improved, and the IDE’s installation time and footprint can be reduced with a new installation tool. However, some tools for business application development and older Windows mobile platforms were removed. VS will likely get updates approximately quarterly, as Microsoft aims to keep pace with competing developer technologies.

Mobile and Cloud Focus Continues

VS, the most popular Windows-based IDE for Microsoft’s platforms, provides graphical tools for designing, coding, debugging, and testing software. It can be used to create managed applications based on Microsoft’s .NET Framework runtime and languages, such as C# and Visual Basic, and traditional, unmanaged C and C++ applications. The IDE can also build cross-platform Android, iOS, and Windows mobile applications (using technology from Microsoft’s year-old Xamarin acquisition or Apache Cordova) and C++ applications that target Linux OSs. VS includes extensive integration with Azure to help developers leverage the Microsoft-hosted cloud platform.