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Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 Nears Completion

A release candidate that rolls up the most recent features -- work item tracking improvements, addition of the Stakeholder license, Git-based pull requests/code reviews -- bug fixes, and issues is a prelude to the final version expected in the coming months.

Microsoft announced another version of Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 RC has been released that gathers up the essential features, bug fixes and issues thus far, as a prelude to a release to manufacturing version that's expected in the coming months.

Microsoft Technical Fellow Brian Harry's blog boils down the release to these highlights: work item tracking improvements, addition of the Stakeholder license and Git-based pull requests/code reviews.

Harry's blog covers the basics, but as is often the case, other Microsoft bloggers spit out lots of information on a number of pages throughout the Microsoft site. Specifically, this blog highlights changes to ASP.NET and Web Tools:

  • Improved JSON editor and addition of feature for validating JSON schemas.
  • HTML editor: improved client template formatting, addition of basic IntelliSense for Web Components, tooltips, region folding.

Some of these features have been extended to the CSS/LESS/Sass editor, as well, and that tool also comes with some refinements and the addition of a number of snippets for rapid development.

As a release candidate, there aren't any significant new features or bug fixes in any of the other tools, according to that blog post:

  • Template Package Updates: Template packages have been updated to use ASP.NET MVC 5.2.2, SignalR 2.1.2, and Owin 3.2 NuGet packages.
  • ASP.NET MVC 5.2.2: Improved performance by shifting package dependencies to Web Pages 3.2.1.
  • ASP.NET Web API 5.2.2: Change dependency to Json.Net 6.0.4.
  • ASP.NET Web API 5.3.1: Some AllowedFunctions enums bug fixed.

For more details and to download Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 RC, go here.

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You Tell 'Em, Readers: If you've read this far, know that Michael Domingo, Visual Studio Magazine Editor in Chief, is here to serve you, dear readers, and wants to get you the information you so richly deserve. What news, content, topics, issues do you want to see covered in Visual Studio Magazine? He's listening at [email protected].

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