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IntelliCode Expansion Highlights New Visual Studio 2019 v16.1
Microsoft shipped Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 with a host of new features and enhancements, led by an expansion of workloads that now support IntelliCode, the AI-assisted upgrade of IntelliSense.
IntelliCode trains itself by examining thousands of high-ranked GitHub projects in order to suggest what code constructs a developer is likely to want while typing, putting the best candidates on the top of the suggested completion list.
After first introducing IntelliCode support for C# and XAML projects in a preview last month, in the new v16.1 update, it covers C#, C++, TypeScript/JavaScript and XAML workloads.
Other new features include:
- Per-monitor awareness support: "If you work with multiple monitors, and multiple resolutions, with Per-Monitor-Awareness, you will find that in most cases, your IDE and tool windows will scale appropriately for crisp visuals too."
- Visual Studio search: When focused, it will now display most recently used action that were invoked through search to help developers get to projects faster.
- .NET productivity features such as:
- One-click code cleanup on projects and solutions
- A new toggle block comment keyboard shortcut
- New refactoring capability to move types to other namespaces
- Experimental IntelliSense completion for unimported types
- New codefixes for C#
- Implementations of .NET SDK tooling additions primarily supporting WinForms and WPF projects for .NET Core 3.0, in addition to several bug fixes and other performance improvements
- A preview of the XAML Designer for .NET Core 3.0 WPF development
- Several new features for Linux development with C++ workloads
In addition to all of the above, which can be examined in further detail in the release notes, Microsoft has released a preview of the next update, Visual Studio 2019 version 16.2.
It features:
- The New Project Dialog retains applied filters between invocations
- Significant UI improvements to the Test Explorer, such as better handling of large test sets, easier filtering, more discoverable commands, and the addition of customizable columns to help developers fine-tune what test information is displayed
Those and a host of other new features, enhancements and bug fixes can be found in the Visual Studio 2019 v16.2 Preview 1 release notes.
"We encourage everyone to update to Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 by downloading directly from VisualStudio.com and we would also invite you to try out the 16.2 Preview 1 release by downloading it online, or updating via the notification bell inside Visual Studio," said Mads Kristensen, senior program manager, Visual Studio Extensibility, in an announcement post yesterday (May 22). "You can also use the Visual Studio Installer to install the update."
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David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.