As we all are aware of this software called Integrated Development Environment(IDE), and it is going to increase the productivity of programmers while developing the software & applications. In this article, we are going to discuss the latest advanced features in Visual Studio 2019 and how these features will play a vital role in productivity and software development. So before we step into this article, a few things which we need to discuss for a better understanding, as follows
What is IDE?
IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment. And it is used to create an environment for developers and provide all-inclusive features for software development and testing. Generally, IDE contains source code editor, some automation tools, and debugger for testing. The main aim of IDE is to enhance the productivity of the developers.
What is Visual Studio?
Visual Studio is one of the most famous IDE’s has been using for the last few years. Microsoft developed it. It is used to create a computer program, web applications, and EXE files, etc. The first version of its kind was launched in 1997. And now the latest version available in the market is Visual Studio 2019.
What’s New in Visual Studio 2019?
Visual Studio 2019 was released on April 2nd, 2019. There are so many advanced features that will be included in this version. So let us deep dive into these advanced features,
New User Experienced Start Window
One major thing you’ve noticed that the new start window will appear in Visual Studio 2019. It consists, so many featured options mentioned below.
Visual Studio Live Share
Live Share is a developer service in Visual Studio 2019. This feature directly enables to share code context and debugging process with your teammates and get live access within Visual Studio itself like Google document services.
Using Live Share, your teammates may able to read, edit, debug, and navigate the developing project securely in a natural way. This service is installed by default in New Visual Studio 2019.
Improved Refactoring
Refactoring in any IDE will highly helpful for developers. In Visual Studio 2019 these refactorings will come up with new advanced features, and these are used to organize your code in a structured manner.
These refactorings will show the suggestions in the light bulb icon and contains actions like moving members base class and interface, make changing the namespaces to suits the folder structures. For example, convert foreach-loops to LINQ queries, etc.
Enhanced Search Experience
One of the useful features in Visual Studio 2019 is the updated search box. In a previous version, it was known as Quick Launch. The new search experience in Visual Studio 2019 is quicker and work effectively for getting best results. This is the advanced feature in the current edition of IDE’s compared to previous versions.
Now the search results will show the suggestions as you type in the search box, and it will dynamically present the results. You can also use keyboard shortcuts while searching, and this will helps you to remember the search queries for future use and recall whenever you build the new web applications.
Search Feature While in Debugging
You’ve already known that the debugging is the process to identify errors and to eliminate those errors in software. Searching objects and suitable values while debugging process is very helpful for the developers.
In Visual Studio 2019 searching while debugging is added Locals, Autos, and Watch windows used to find the values and objects. Below animation will explain the actual process of debugging search window in VS2019.
Visual Studio IntelliCode
Intellicode is an extension in Visual Studio 2019, and it enhances the web application & software development using advanced technology called Artificial Intelligence. It provides suggestions and coding objects in the development process. Intellicode will gain its power using 2000 various open-source projects in Github to streamline and improve your coding skills.
Code cleanup in One Click
A new code cleanup command in Visual Studio 2019 is to detect the warnings and suggestions with the one-click button. This command will help to format the code and make the changes into the coding format suggested by .editorconfig files and settings.
It also enables to save collections of fixers as the default profile. Let’s take one example for clear understanding is that you have a different dynamic set of fixers to apply before a code syntax review is to configure different profiles at the various tasks.
Integrated Code Reviews in Development
Microsoft designs a brand new extension, called Managed Pulled Requests(PRs). Using this extension, you can run the code and debug your team’s pull requests without quitting the Visual Studio Application. Presently this feature is only available to Azure Repos, and soon you can expect the support from GitHub. Want to use this extension for development, then you need download from Visual Studio Marketplace.
Per Monitor Aware Rendering(PMA)
In previous IDE editions, if you will work with monitors that were installed with various type of display scale factors, and these are connected remotely with a machine to show the various scale factors that are distinct from the primary device, but those results are shown blurry or render with wrong scaling factors.
But Visual Studio 2019 came up with a PMA (Per-monitor aware) application. This will show output correctly without rendering anything irrespective of scaling factors of the display.
New Delivery Model for SQL Server Data Tools
Visual Studio supports so many programming languages, including server-side languages also. And the SQL server data tools (SSDT) are always used to build server-side applications. The new data delivery model is available in Visual Studio 2019 to develop SQL related projects such as server-side based applications, analysis services projects, reporting services projects, and integration services projects, etc. This delivery model will be available in the form of extensions called analysis services and integration services extensions. In previous editions, these extensions are available in the form of standalone installer type. But in the new version, these features will be directly accessible with built-in workloads of Visual Studio 2019.
Conclusion
These advanced features in Visual Studio will enhance programmer productivity and team collaboration in software development compared to previous versions. The new user interface will allow users to build applications very effectively and enhanced search bar provides accurate results for developers while in developing the software. The debugging is 50% faster than previous versions, highly effective search bar in the Autos, Locals, and Watch windows. After all, these advanced features in Visual Studio will significantly impact the software & application development. If interested in learning more about coding in Visual Studio, then check out this course.
