News

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.

comments powered by Disqus

Featured

  • What's New in TypeScript 5.3

    Microsoft advanced TypeScript to version 5.3 with a bevy of changes affecting everything from import attributes to interactive inlay hints for types, along with multiple optimizations.

  • Finally Go Eyes On with Upcoming Visual Studio 2022 UI Refresh

    Six months ago, Microsoft teased Visual Studio 2022 developers by announcing an upcoming UI refresh, which they can now finally get their eyes on in the new v17.9 preview 1.

  • DBSCAN Data Clustering from Scratch Using C#

    Compared to other clustering techniques, DBSCAN does not require you to explicitly specify how many data clusters to use, explains Dr. James McCaffrey of Microsoft Research in this full-code, step-by-step machine language tutorial.

  • GitHub Copilot Leads Productivity Gains in New Visual Studio 2022 17.8

    In announcing Visual Studio 2022 17.8 today, Microsoft emphasized community-driven productivity gains among the new features and functionality.

  • Microsoft Ships .NET 8

    In announcing .NET 8 today, Microsoft emphasized the cloud, performance, full-stack Blazor, AI and .NET MAUI as major highlights of the latest edition of the company's free, cross-platform, open source developer platform.

Subscribe on YouTube

Upcoming Events