Visual Studio Editor Blog : press

Visual Studio 2010 Beta2 Released

VSEditor — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:29:00 GMT

Visual Studio 2010 Beta2 has shipped! As of today (Wednesday, October 21), it’s publicly available as a free download. Check out this page for the official product and download information.

Find out more about the VS 2010 release

Want more information about what’s new, what’s changed, and what to expect in Beta2? Rather than write our own version of what others have already said quite well, we’d encourage you to check out these announcements:

The official Microsoft press release for Beta2 describes VS 2010’s new SKU structure and announces a March 22, 2010 launch date
S. Somasegar announces Beta2
Jeff Beehler explains the “Go Live” license for Beta2
Scott Hanselman shares some of his favorite new features
Dave Mendlen talks to Ars Technica about the new SKU structure

Dive into the VS 2010 IDE

In addition to the IDE itself, there is a ton of content to help you get started with or dive further into Beta2. Here are just some of the resources available:

Send your feedback

Once you’ve downloaded VS 2010 Beta2, we’d love to hear from you! As always, there are many ways to share your thoughts:

Post feedback in the Beta2 forums
File a bug or suggestion for any issues you find
Leave a comment on this blog post
E-mail the Editor team directly
Follow and/or contact @VSEditor on Twitter

Whichever method you choose, I hope you’ll let us know what you think. Enjoy Beta2!

Brittany Behrens
Program Manager, VS Platform Team

Visual Studio 2010 Beta1 Released!

VSEditor — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:43:00 GMT

It’s official: Visual Studio 2010 Beta1 has shipped! Check out this page for the official product information or download it (free!) here.

So what’s new for the Editor in Beta1? We’ve made significant improvements since the CTP, including better stability and easier extension development. You’ll also notice the return of many of your favorite features:

The redesigned Code Outlining feature that the Editor team and VS General Manager Jason Zander blogged about over the past few weeks
The Track Changes margin, which uses colors to show the changes made in your file
Drag & Drop code editing, copying, and pasting
RTF cut/copy/paste, which allows RTF formatting to persist on copying and pasting text into another application
Incremental Search (Ctrl+I), which refines your search terms as you type them
Visible Whitespace (Ctrl+E, Ctrl+S), which shows visual glyphs for different types of whitespace, e.g. dots for spaces, arrows for tabs
A new default font, Consolas, specifically designed for working with code

And that’s just the Editor. In the VS 2010 Beta, your window layout is more customizable than ever with floating document tabs and expanded multi-monitor support in the VS Shell. You can search for project templates, find new templates online, and download content from the revamped New Project Dialog. You can even use the new Extension Manager to download extensions from within Visual Studio and publish any extensions you write. The list of improvements goes on and on – for more details about what’s new for Beta1 in VS Platform and beyond, take a look at JasonZ’s screenshot-filled blog post.

Now that Beta1 is available for download, there are a few frequently-asked questions:
Q: Is it ‘safe’ to install VS 2010 Beta1 on my machine?
A: Yes! We’ve tested side-by-side scenarios, so installing the beta on a machine with VS 2008 installed is fine. The beta also supports uninstall and should leave VS 2008 and your machine in working order afterward. You can install VS 2010 Beta1 on a VPC if you prefer, though you will notice slower performance than if you run VS on your local machine. And please remember that however you install, this is pre-release software. The VS 2010 Beta1 readme documents major known issues, but it’s not guaranteed to be an exhaustive list.

Q: Can I install on Windows 7?
A: Yes! Installation of VS 2010 Beta1 on the Windows 7 RC is supported, so go right ahead. We don’t recommend installing Beta1 on the Windows 7 beta, though, so please upgrade to the Win7 RC before installing VS 2010.

Q: Is there a VS 2010 SDK?
A: Yes! It’s available for download here. I highly recommend the SDK, as it includes a lot of additional documentation and sample code. It’s a great place to get started with Editor extensibility.

Once you’ve downloaded the VS 2010 Beta, we’d love to hear from you! You can post feedback on the Beta1 forums or file a bug for any problems you find. And as always, you can contact the Editor team directly by posting a comment or using the Email link. No matter how you do it, I hope you’ll let us know what you think.

Enjoy the Beta!

Brittany Behrens
Program Manager, VS Platform Team

Visualizing XML Doc Comments

VSEditor — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:33:00 GMT

One of our goals for the new editor is to make extensibility easier and more powerful than ever before. From custom text coloring to visual adornments painted directly on the editor surface, extensibility can dramatically change and improve the development experience. A recent article written by Lisa Feigenbaum, Microsoft’s Program Manager for the VB Community, showcases an adornment that enables rich WPF-based visualizations of XML doc comments:

You can read Lisa's entire article, titled “Documenting Your Code With XML Comments,” in MSDN Magazine. It not only highlights how this extension can transform the way developers read their code but also shares helpful information and tips about doc comments in general, so I’d encourage you to take a look!

Brittany Behrens
Program Manager, VS Platform Team

Editor Evolution

VSEditor — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:43:00 GMT

The new editor is featured in the cover story for the April issue of Visual Studio Magazine! The magazine publishes news and information for professional developers, and this month it is spotlighting Visual Studio 2010 in an article called “IDE Evolution”. Here are a few highlights:

“In VS 2010, developers can experience firsthand the beginning of the IDE's evolution: improved code navigation, annotation and extensibility with the WPF-based shell; better performance and scalability for native code; and fundamental improvements in debugging and test-driven development.”

“What we want is flexibility and extensibility. For instance, it's because the new editor is WPF-based that we can, for reasonable engineering cost, offer the ability to add inline adornments, margins, even 'heads up display' style extensions. ... The best part is you won't have to wait for us to do these things -- you want profiler information overlaid on your text? No problem. Go do it. Test coverage? Hot links to documentation? Online presence indicators based on e-mail names in comments? You could do all these things.”

The article gives a great overview not only of the new editor but also of Visual Studio 2010 as a whole, including the new shell, extension manager, Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), and new features for the Team System (VSTS) editions. If you’re interested in hearing the latest buzz about VS 2010, I’d encourage you to read the article, available free online here.

Brittany Behrens
Program Manager, VS Platform Team