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Visual Studio 2019 16.3 Preview 3 Focuses on F#, Features Experimental Terminal

You have to manually enable it, but an early look at a new Terminal is available in the third preview of Visual Studio 2019 16.3, along with many F# enhancements, IntelliCode improvements and much more.

The experimental Visual Studio Terminal is only available in preview releases and in Preview 3 must be enabled by the menu commands: Tools > Options > Preview Features. After that, the Terminal can be found under the View menu or via VS search.

Preview 3 also includes a bunch of goodies for F# developers, including support for F# 4.7 -- a minor language release -- and many tooling improvements. "This release was focused primarily on enabling F# 4.7 and underlying infrastructural changes that allow us to deliver preview of F# language functionality more effectively," Microsoft said.

Preview 3 also supports F# nameof expression and opening of static classes. Also included in the update are many bug fixes and improvements to the F# compiler.

F# tools also get a boost, with improvements ranging from better record formatting to tooltip property tweaks.

For IntelliCode:

  • The C++ base model has been turned on by default. Developers can change that setting by going to Tools > Options > IntelliCode.
  • Microsoft included Repeated Edits for C#, which analyzes local edits for repeatable changes and determines other places you may need this change within the same file. Suggested repeated edits will appear in the Error List and as warnings within the code file.

In the JavaScript/TypeScript space:

  • There is now editor support for TypeScript 3.6.
  • Visual Studio will now refresh the project more responsively when a coder changes or edits the tsconfig.json file.

Many bugs -- or "developer community issues" -- were also fixed, ranging from a problem with command Tab order in design mode to hangs that were experienced in VS 16.2 when a dialog was opened for editing.

For more detailed information, see the release notes.

Even though it's in preview, Microsoft is advising developers that VS 2019 16.3 be used to try out the production-ready .NET Core 3.0, which just hit Preview 9, the last preview in advance of general availability set for later this month.

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.

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