Visual Studio 2019 Update Boosts Debugging, C++, More -- Visual Studio Magazine

Visual Studio 2019 Update Boosts Debugging, C++, More

By David Ramel
04/26/2019

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2, with improvements to debugging, C++ development, extensibility, NuGet functionality and more.

C++ developers get several enhancements, including:

The Tools menu can now be used to enable C++ IntelliCode, which is now included out-of-the box and features improved accuracy and support for free-functions.
CMake integration now supports the Clang/LLVM toolchain for Windows or Linux projects. Developers can now build, edit and debug CMake projects that use Clang, MSVC or GCC.
In-editor documentation for CMake commands, variables, and properties has been added, and developers can now enjoy IntelliSense autocompletion and quick info tooltips when editing a CMakeLists.txt file. Microsoft said that will save developers time spent referencing documentation outside of the IDE and reduce errors.

Other improvements include:

Any workload that includes C#, XAML or C++ will see IntelliCode installed by default, with it being enabled by default for C# and XAML.
Debugging NuGet packages is easier with the ability to enable NuGet.org Symbol Server from the Debugging\Symbols option. Other debugging-related features include: the Time Travel Debugging preview now includes support for exception stepping; support has been added for Linux remote debugging using a custom program via launch.vs.json.
Source Link can now leverage Windows Authentication to support on-premises TFS Source Control.
Extensibility is enhanced with the ability to use the latest version of the Microsoft.VisualStudio.SDK to target Visual Studio 2019 in and extension. Also, creating new VSIX projects will leverage the 16.0 version of the Microsoft.VisualStudio.SDK NuGet package, and coders can now add tags to project templates to enable categorization and filtering in the Visual Studio 2019 New Project Dialog.
Upon focus, Visual Studio Search will now display the three most recently used actions invoked, functionality added in response to developer feedback.
Mobile developers using Xamarin will see an updated default Android Experience to API 28 for templates, device creation, installers and more. IntelliSense on Windows will show recommendations for design-time attributes when developers code Xamarin.Forms XAML.
Developers can use one-click code cleanup for projects and solutions by right-clicking on projects or the solution in the Solution Explorer and selecting "Run Code Cleanup."

More details on all of the above and dozens of other new features, tweaks and bug fixes and be found in an announcement blog post and the v16.1 Preview 2 release notes.

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.

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