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Microsoft releases Visual Studio for Mac

By Ng Chong Seng - on 10 May 2017, 11:00pm

Microsoft releases Visual Studio 2017 for Mac

In March this year, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2017 for Windows, an IDE (integrated development environment) that developers can use to develop Windows apps and mobile apps, as well as websites, web services, and web apps. Today at the Build 2017 developer conference, Microsoft has announced that Visual Studio 2017 for Mac has shed its preview tag and is now generally available.

A largely rebranded version of Xamarin Studio’s IDE (Microsoft bought Xamarin in early 2016), Visual Studio 2017 for Mac includes Intellisense code completion, a Roslyn-powered compiler, intelligent refactoring, and a universal search across files, types, members, commands, and NuGets. It also uses the same MSBuild solution and project format as Visual Studio for Windows, so Mac and Windows developers can easily share projects across both platforms. Also announced are previews of Docker tools, Azure Functions, and Xamarin.IoT support.

In addition to the ability to build native mobile and Mac apps in C# (it has complete .NET APIs for Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS), developers can also use Visual Studio for Mac to build from the client to the cloud, thanks to .NET Core and Azure connectivity. If you download Visual Studio for Mac by May 17, you also get free 60-day access to Xamarin University.

Additionally, Azure Cloud Shell, an authenticated, browser-based shell is also added to the Azure Portal. Bash (and later, PowerShell) is coming to Azure Cloud Shell. Azure iOS and Android apps are also on their way.

The release of Visual Studio 2017 for Mac is one of many new tools and services that Microsoft has announced at Build this year. Here's a quick rundown of a few more Azure services:

Azure Cosmo DB - This is the industry’s first globally distributed, multi-model database service to deliver horizontal scale with guaranteed uptime, throughput, consistency, and single-digit millisecond latency at the 99th percentile. Developers also get incredible flexibility with the only schema-free database service that also offers five well-defined consistency choices while auto-indexing all their data. From IoT to AI to mobile, Azure Cosmo DB database service is designed to power “planet-scale” cloud services and data-intensive apps.

Azure SQL Database improvements - New MySQL- and PostgreSQL-managed services join Azure SQL Database to give developers expanded choice and flexibility on the service platform. There’s also an early preview of Microsoft’s new database migration services for Oracle and SQL Server customers, and a new Managed Instance private preview, a service that helps organizations easily migrate existing SQL Server apps to Azure SQL Database.

Windows Server Containers support in Azure Service Fabric - Azure Service Fabric is gaining support for containers of nearly every type and on every platform.

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