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Microsoft Adds Node.js Support To Visual Studio
shutdown -p now writes "Coming from the team that had previously brought you Python Tools for Visual Studio, Microsoft has announced Node.js Tools for Visual Studio, with the release of the first public alpha. NTVS is the official extension for Visual Studio that adds support for Node.js, including editing with Intellisense, debugging, profiling, and the ability to deploy Node.js websites to Windows Azure. An overview video showcases the features, and Scott Hanselman has a detailed walkthrough. The project is open source under Apache License 2.0. While the extension is published by Microsoft, it is a collaborative effort involving Microsoft, Red Gate (which previously had a private beta version of similar product called Visual Node), and individual contributors from the Node.js community."
I'm sure the NodeJs hipsters running the latest flavor of Linux with custom desktops will close out their sublime text and immediately wget that.
When you get all browser makers to agree on a new language to use we can stop with JavaScript.
If you know of a better client side web scripting language that has wide spread browser support, we are listening.
nothing? Yeah, I thought so....
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Well, duh, the point is not having to port/compile native apps for all platforms. With Javascript you just write one web app that is 100% compatible on all platforms, OSes, and browsers! Man... I thought I could keep a straight face while typing that but I give up.
(disclosure: I am a developer on PTVS and NTVS team)
I would hope that the track record of our particular team with Python Tools would speak for itself here - it's been out there for two years now, with 2.0 released last month, and it was and remains all about standard Python. While it does support IronPython, for example (but also Jython, PyPy, and other third party implementations), CPython remains the primary target because that's what the community uses, and our goal is to attract developers from said community to VS, Azure, and other Microsoft platforms and products, not to hijack their language/framework of choice.
The story with NTVS is similar: it's all about making VS a compelling choice for Node.js developers without forcing a Microsoft-top-to-bottom stack on them (which no-one would accept, and rightly so). In that sense, it is in line with Azure offering Linux VMs, or the ability to write Node.js-based Azure push notification services for Windows and Windows Phone.
Sure, karma is a bitch. In fact, part of what we're trying to do as a team is to turn it around, both the external perception as well as internal company understanding on openness - not just open source, though that as well, but generally working together on common things, and purging the NIH and the "we must be in charge" syndrome.
It's not just us, too - it has been a growing thing in the developer division, in general, with a lot more stuff being open sourced, and a broad change of attitude from a single monolithic take-it-or-leave-it stack, to going where the people already are and supporting what they already do. You might have noticed some other glimpses of that if you've been following the general news on MS dev story, e.g. with a renewed effort on C++ standard conformance, or a lot more attention to JS and HTML5.
Why can't Microsoft put out a Visual Studio plugin for Powershell with full intellisense, breakpointing, inspections, etc. ?
We don't need to - someone else already did that.
Keep in mind that we're a relatively small group - 6 developers/testers (we all do both) and 1 project manager, covering two projects already (PTVS and NTVS). We can only do so much. Then again, that's precisely why the code for both products is open source - so that people can take it and use it as a foundation for similar products for other languages. Here is one more for PHP, for example.
Oh yeah, good idea. Let's just be rid of this whole Internet thing, and all the crap people put on it.
WWW != Internet
My own personal take on software patents (which is obviously my own only, does not represent the opinion of my employer in any way, blah blah etc) is that they can play a useful role, but they should be significantly scaled down in terms of what you can patent. Complicated algorithms, like, say, MP3 or H.264 or other compression stuff - probably yes, since that takes real time and effort to develop. But I'd love to see the "one click" patents die a fiery death. Some laws that would require non-discriminatory licensing for useful patents for interoperability and standards compliance purposes would also be great.
So EFF gets part of my paycheck every year. Ironically enough, it qualifies for MS donation match program, so they match it dollar for dollar. ~
Still no feature request. I'm disappointed.
If there is one in the tracker and it gets over 100 votes, I'll personally implement it. It's going to appear once you open a project and ask, "It looks like you're trying to do some work. Would you like to be distracted?". If you say yes, it'll open Slashdot in a Visual Studio tab. ~