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Microsoft Publishes Node.js Tools for Visual Studio

The tools are open source and include debugging support.

Node.js is the latest JavaScript platform to find a home in Visual Studio. An increasingly popular language for server-side applications, Microsoft has released Node.js Tools for Visual Studio 1.0 beta.

S. Somasegar, Microsoft's Corporate VP of the Developer Division, announced the suite on his blog Friday. He noted that Node.js Tools for Visual Studio (NTVS) is open source under the Apache 2.0 license and available on CodePlex. As of right now, NTVS isn't listed as a project on the new .NET Foundation Web site, which Microsoft unveiled during the Build show last week. (The Foundation includes the .NET Compiler Platform, formerly code-named "Roslyn.")

One of NTVS' primary benefits is the ability to use Visual Studio's debugger, including "all the core debugging features," Somasegar said, including breakpoints, filters, locals, watches, call-stacks and when-hit actions. Debugging works both locally within a Visual Studio Node project, or remotely in a Node app running on Microsoft Azure.

Other features of note in the 1.0 beta include Edit and Continue, allowing changes to server-side code while it's running; full support for TypeScript, including full IntelliSense, profiling and debugging (TypeScript recently reached its first full, 1.0 release); and Azure Worker Roles. Microsoft has a Node.js Developer Center as part of its Azure documentation.

Node.js was developed by Ryan Dahl. It uses "an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices," according to the official Web site. The most current version is 0.10.26.

About the Author

Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Virtualization & Cloud Review. Follow him on Twitter @VirtReviewKeith.

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