Slashdot Mirror


Microsoft Releases Visual Studio 2017 (visualstudio.com)

Reader Anon E. Muss writes: Microsoft on Tuesday released Visual Studio 2017. The latest version of the venerable Integrated Development Environment supports a variety of languages (C/C++, C#, VB.net, F#, Javascript/Typescript, Python, etc.) and targets classic "Win32" desktop, Universal Windows Platform (UWP, also known as "Metro"), .NET, ASP, node.js, etc.). A "Community Edition" is available at no cost for individual developers and those working on open source software. "Professional" and "Enterprise" editions are available for corporate developers, at prices sure to shock whoever has to sign the check.

121 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. we know what vs is - did anything change? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    crappy summary for the slashdot crowd. we know what visual studio is - what we want to know is what, if anything, changed

    1. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    2. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      This is a technology site, not buzzfeed. The summary should be mostly change logs.

    3. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by chispito · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you have to ask, the changes probably don't matter to you.

      Fantastic point. All news is dumb because if it were important to us, we would already know it.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    4. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by Philotomy · · Score: 1

      VS is not my first choice when developing software (it's not terrible, but feels bloated and heavy), but I need to use it for some of my work development tasks (lots of Windows-focused .NET stuff). The things I'm most interested in, at the moment, are the improvements in support for ES2015, JSX, and node.js integration.

    5. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      I only need to know two things:

      a) Does Intellisense work yet?

      b) How long until SP1?

      --
      No sig today...
    6. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      VS (Community - haven't needed anything more in years) is still my first choice if I have control over my Windows environment, but I've also started using "SharpDevelop" on machines where I want a portable ASP.NET or C# development environment (since you can run it without installing anything)

    7. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by BradleyUffner · · Score: 1

      a) yes, it always has.
      b) probably about 6 months

    8. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by SoCalChris · · Score: 1

      I notice they finally added simple refactoring capabilities, like "Extract Function," so you know, they're making progress: soon they might catch up to Eclipse.

      If you're just now noticing that, you're way behind the times. This has been built into Visual Studio since at least VS2005.

    9. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by david_thornley · · Score: 2

      a) yes, it always has.

      Ask a C++ developer sometime about Intellisense. We're using VS 2013 (I'd love to be on 2015, but not all of our third-party library suppliers are there yet), and Intellisense mostly works, if you don't mind taking a ten-second break now and then.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    10. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      When various features were introduced, and how well they work, depends on whether you're using C++ or C#.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    11. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Linux support for VC++ is mentioned seems pretty big.

      Also a mac version is in preview and better Android and IOS development with Xamarin is included.

    12. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      a) yes, it always has.

      I can tell you don't write real programs.

      Intellisense has never worked on any of my C++ projects. I've been using Visual Studio/Visual C++ since version 5.0 (mid 1990s, I believe).

      At best it just means the code is full of red squiggles. At worst you'll be restarting Visual Studio several times per day to try and clear the intellisense cache.

      --
      No sig today...
    13. Re:we know what vs is - did anything change? by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      a) yes, it always has.

      After a days testing I can report:

      No, it still doesn't.

      And it still has other bugs I've been reporting since Visual C++ 6.0. Bugs which have been marked as 'fixed', but aren't.

      --
      No sig today...
  2. Is it that expensive? by martiniturbide · · Score: 1

    Or it is so cheap that will shock the one signing the check?

    1. Re:Is it that expensive? by spongman · · Score: 1

      for individuals, startups, or open-source development, it's free.

  3. Re:64-bit by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    At least they dropped Foxpro support.

  4. Re:Microsoft is good once again by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    nuget

  5. Re:64-bit by scb147 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Microsoft,

    It's 2017 and Visual Studio is still 32-bit.

    Sincerely,
    Developers

    My MSDN account shows both 32-bit and 64-bit are available for Professional.

  6. Re:64-bit by lactose99 · · Score: 1

    I code all my apps in COBOL

    --
    Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
  7. Re:Microsoft is good once again by Njorthbiatr · · Score: 1

    There's VS for Mac.

  8. $500 is Shocking??? by turp182 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Professional version is $500 (license, not subscription):
    https://www.visualstudio.com/v...

    That seems very reasonable.

    Enterprise is quite a bit more ($6K for new, $2.6K to renew), but it is part of the MSDN Enterprise (previously Ultimate I believe, that's what my license is called at this time), you get access to almost everything MS has ever made (want Windows 3.1 or DOS 6, it's there, want enterprise SQL Server, it's there).

    Here's the link to the prices:
    https://www.visualstudio.com/v...

    --
    BlameBillCosby.com
    1. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by dontbemad · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think what is shocking to the vocally anti-Microsoft (and proprietary software in general, for that matter) crowd on slashdot is that people can get away with charging MONEY for SOFTWARE.

      It never ceases to amaze me how, despite the fact that the majority of us on this website make our money in tech or software, the idea of charging money for those services is revolting to some.

    2. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Informative

      Does this mean I can get Visual Studio 2016 for a cheaper price now since it is considered old and obsolete?
      what about VS 2015 or older? Cheaper is better.

      There is no VS2016. As for VS2015 I doubt you can even buy it now unless you get through an MSDN subscription.

      But anyway for 100% of non-corporate usage the community editions handle everything you can throw at them and are free. The Pro only starts to make sense when you want to tie into a Team Foundation Server in a corporate environment.

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    3. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by ThePawArmy · · Score: 1

      Seems expensive compared to Xcode.

    4. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by Kjella · · Score: 3, Funny

      $500 is Shocking???

      The submitter is probably measuring that in Ramen noodles while being a squatter on campus like his idol, because software wants to be like, free, man. And I'd show him our SQL Server Enterprise bill, but I fear he'd go into cardiac arrest. For us Visual Studio is just a rounding error for SSIS/SSAS/SSRS development.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    5. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by OzPeter · · Score: 2

      This.

      And if you think SQL Server licensing is bad for your health, do not under any circumstances look at licensing BizTalk.

      But really, for your sanity as well, don't use BizTalk. ("Ha ha, ho ho, hee hee," I say with a crazy look in my eye...)

      I'm petty sure all the SAP people are simply rolling their eyes right now.

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    6. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      And this is just for desktop development. I can't imagine what most people here would say about automotive/aerospace, embedded toolchains. Nothing opensource comes close. The money is still cheaper than engineering time.

      Simulink Embedded Coder, VXWorks, Green Hill INTEGRITY RTOS, ByteCraft eTPU compiler, Ashware eTPU compiler, Vector CANape, and on.

      That doesn't even touch on the cost of development boards.

    7. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      It was amusing to see them get burned by that mind set. VS2010 did not support the C99 standard, then suddenly 3 years later vs2013 supported the c11 standard.

      --
      Knowledge = Power
      P= W/t
      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
    8. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by kronix1986 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You're making the assumption that these are professional people. The kind of Slashdot user who posts things like "Micro$haft sucks, most evil company ever" never makes it beyond the helpdesk or entry-level dev jobs in most companies. Their opinion is literally worthless to the company; they don't rise to become decision makers or budget holders, let alone C-level. So, while they seethe in their cubicles, their boss' boss' boss' boss' boss' boss signs an enterprise agreement with Microsoft and announces Visual Studio 2017 will be deployed to devs within the company.

      People with a functioning brain don't expect software to be open source any more than they expect open-source cars, food, clothes, etc. Hell, pretty much all chip designs are closed source, as is pretty much all BIOS code - what's the point of being smug about a FOSS software stack if your hardware is proprietary?

      FOSS' primary advantage is it incentivises companies to not act like buttholes - if the company's going off the rails, some random guy can fork the project and it gains traction. If they don't patch a security flaw, some guy forks it. It doesn't guarantee better quality code or better project management...indeed, some of the most poorly managed software projects of the last 10 years (Ubuntu, Firefox, Gnome, systemd) have been FOSS.

    9. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      We had a contractor from a developing country on our team. He was really upset when he found out how much we were paying for Visual Studio Enterprise, because it was really close to his total salary.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    10. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You're making the assumption that these are professional people. The kind of Slashdot user who posts things like "Micro$haft sucks, most evil company ever" never makes it beyond the helpdesk or entry-level dev jobs in most companies. Their opinion is literally worthless to the company; they don't rise to become decision makers or budget holders, let alone C-level. So, while they seethe in their cubicles, their boss' boss' boss' boss' boss' boss signs an enterprise agreement with Microsoft and announces Visual Studio 2017 will be deployed to devs within the company.

      People with a functioning brain don't expect software to be open source any more than they expect open-source cars, food, clothes, etc. Hell, pretty much all chip designs are closed source, as is pretty much all BIOS code - what's the point of being smug about a FOSS software stack if your hardware is proprietary?

      FOSS' primary advantage is it incentivises companies to not act like buttholes - if the company's going off the rails, some random guy can fork the project and it gains traction. If they don't patch a security flaw, some guy forks it. It doesn't guarantee better quality code or better project management...indeed, some of the most poorly managed software projects of the last 10 years (Ubuntu, Firefox, Gnome, systemd) have been FOSS.

      You know back in 2000 when Slashdot was young I was one of those guys who went into a job fair. I told one hiring IT manager that I only like free as it's the best and he rolled eyes and looked back. I said something similiar but less direct to the next hiring manager and he just smiled like I was retarded.

      After that incident I questioned everything I read here and assumed corporate America didn't get it! Later on years later I realized it was ME who didn't get it! :-) A wife, bills, and tired of reinstalling everything because I made a mistake (though I have virtual machines now today) got me kind of sick of FOSS ONLY WINDOWS SUX way of things).

      Oddly most slashdotters today are conservative now rather than freakish liberal like in the late 1990s and early 2000's but still think Windows = Windows 98 with the same problems as this was the last version they used at home. I have moved on myself. I have a FreeBSD VM and some Linux appliances for when I want to use something on another VM.

    11. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by fisted · · Score: 1

      People with a functioning brain don't expect software to be open source any more than they expect open-source cars, food, clothes, etc. Hell, pretty much all chip designs are closed source, as is pretty much all BIOS code - what's the point of being smug about a FOSS software stack if your hardware is proprietary?

      Being able to change things you don't like, especially if you are a developer, duh. I've patched dozens of projects including my OS, userland and kernel. I wouldn't be able to do that on closed source software. I don't care about the philosophical bullshit your straw man is made of.

      If, as a developer, it has never occured to you to modify your tooling, then there's something fundamentally wrong with you.

    12. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by idontusenumbers · · Score: 1

      With an MSDN subscription, you get permission to TEST against all those apps, servers, and OSs, but you don't get permission to use those in production. If you get an MSDN subscription, you can download, install, and test SQL server, but you aren't allowed to use that copy of SQL Server in a production system. You have to pony up big bucks for a license to SQL Server.

    13. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by Caesar+Tjalbo · · Score: 1

      I charge money for the software I make. I think that most Microsoft software just isn't worth the price.

      --
      "I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
    14. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by Hussman32 · · Score: 1

      While I've seen it before, I do think your .sig explains Life, The Universe, and Everything.

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    15. Re: $500 is Shocking??? by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

      The software will run on a consumer grade i5 Dell desktop that you can buy at Walmart for $499.

    16. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Agreed. Submitter should think about it this way. How much per-year does a typical programmer earn? Does $500 or even $6K for a perpetual license software for a tool said developer will probably use every day for several years sound expensive? It's stupidly inexpensive, relatively speaking, to the total cost of that programmer's general overhead.

      It's a decent chunk of money for an individual developer, but then again, they can simply use the Community Edition for free.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    17. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by Interfacer · · Score: 2

      I know the business guys use SAP here and no doubt it is expensive. Not sure how much though. I look after the process automation software in a pharmaceutical company, and the annual licensing of just our tech support is enough to buy a house. A big house. In a good neigborhood. And that is cheap compared to initial purchase of our software. Engineering licenses alone are something like 15K per seat.

    18. Re: $500 is Shocking??? by fisted · · Score: 1

      I'd assume that is because the cost to do so outweighs the gains. Rewiring a motor that's already performing as specified is both pointless and a major pain in the ass.

      Adding a little hack to existing software? No problem at all.

    19. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      You can still buy the old versions, but they cost the same as the new version.

      People buy additional licences when they have old projects that they need to work on and don't want to go through the hassle of upgrading them to the latest Visual Studio version. It's actually pretty common with all sorts of software - I have to maintain stuff that only builds on a virtual XP machine with ancient version of MPLAB and a HISOFT compiler.

      CAD packages are the same, people keep old versions installed to open ancient files. Same with Windows, you can still buy Windows 7 licences if you are a business, and they cost the same as they always did.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    20. Re:$500 is Shocking??? by chrish · · Score: 1

      Be sure to put "supports" in quotes; VisualStudio's C standard support is terrible. Our project is C99 and we have to use clang or gcc from MinGW for our Windows builds because Visual C can't handle the code. We're not even doing anything weird.

      --
      - chrish
  9. Re:"Sign the check"? by jimtheowl · · Score: 1

    The people who have not shock whatsoever signing that check are usually not spending their own money.

  10. Re:64-bit by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 4, Informative

    The IDE is 32bit. The compile, debug, profile etc chain are 32bit and 64bit.

    There is probably no reason for the IDE to be 64bit since it does not come even close to use enough memory to justify that. I have opened a few visual studio projects in 2017 and most of them don't use more than 200 MB. Resource usage so far is about half that of VS 2015.

    --
    Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
  11. Sounds great. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    Now if they would just make it standards compliant and add basic endian macros, it would be even greater!

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Sounds great. by Jezral · · Score: 1

      You're in luck: https://twitter.com/StephanTLa... - "We’re planning to ship most C++17 features in VS 2017 updates. No ETAs yet, but we’re working on them as a top priority."

    2. Re:Sounds great. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      Features are great but standard compliance is what I'm interested in. That means getting all the nitty-gritty details right so that standards compliant code works with their compiler instead of whining about errors that don't exist.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  12. Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 2

    I use and like VS quite a lot, but am not precisely an early adopter. At the moment, I am mostly using the 2012 version and, eventually (= when forced to do so), the 2015 one. Actually, I am not even sure why I stopped using VS 2010 because it was quite reliable. I have seen some problems with 2012, but have gradually got used to them. I haven't used 2015 much, but don't think that I like it: it consumes too many resources, even for my a-bit-old-but-quite-powerful desktop computer.

    I am currently downloading the 2017 Community (clarification which is perhaps still required: fully-functional free version, which has nothing to do with the old VS Express) and everything looks OK so far. The downloading interface seems nicer than the previous ones. Microsoft promised this version to be much more modular and apparently they delivered. I am saying apparently because the options are there, although the size is still quite big anyway (over 7 GB after having chosen the most basic options).

    --
    Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    1. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by xvan · · Score: 1

      2012 brings c++11 support.

    2. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      Every new .NET/Visual Studio version brings something new which some people might find relevant and others might not. In my case, I use VS mostly for C# & VB.NET and rarely with new .NET features. Over 99% of all the code which I write in VS might be done with VS 2010 (and .NET 3.5). Sometimes, I need newer versions and plainly rely on them. For example, while contributing to the open .NET project (CoreCLR and CoreFX), I had to use VS 2015.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    3. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      It's great that those of us who just want C and C# without all the web and SQL shit can get that now.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      In theory, newer versions should support all what was done with older ones by eventually performing some minor modifications (quick migrations or changing the .NET version associated with the given project). But I guess that it is a matter of personal taste. I prefer to mostly use just one version and, when required, newer ones.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    5. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I'm using C++14 right now, for free, using GCC.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    6. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      Yes. Seeing the template tree so empty is kind of nice.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    7. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by kronix1986 · · Score: 1

      Eh, your typical dev machine/laptop is going to feature at least a 250GB SSD - typically much larger. 7GB is a fair footprint when you consider all the different revisions of each language they have to support, with the accompanying libraries.

      To put things into perspective, Visual Studio's install footprint is about the same as a typical Blu-ray MKV (7-15GB).

    8. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      I have worked enough with VS to know that 7 GB isn't much. But I found kind of curious a so big value after having chosen just some basic options. In any case, all what matters is the final performance and, as explained in the second part of my comment, its behaviour on this front seems quite good: starts much quicker than 2015, even quicker than 2012 (notably older, under-featured and lighter).

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    9. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      I don't care too much about interface aspects, other than what has a direct influence on my coding. But I do recall that the first time I saw VS 2012 was a bit of a downer. In fact, I have never got as comfortable with it as I did with 2010 or 2008.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    10. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Last I looked, most of C++14 is in VS 2015. VC++ does lag annoyingly behind g++ and clang in standards conformance, but it catches up to the standard eventually.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    11. Re:Step-by-step impressions (intro + downloading) by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      VC++ does lag annoyingly behind g++ and clang in standards conformance, but it catches up to the standard eventually.

      Wow, that must suck. Meanwhile, I have two great compilers, gcc and clang, that both do a great job of tracking the standard and, by all appearances, are just generally better than VC++. For free.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  13. How do I turn the telemetry off this time? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the last VS I had to add a compiler option to stop you from sneaking your snooping crap into my code, what is it going to be this time?

    Yours,

    An Ex-VS user.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:How do I turn the telemetry off this time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      VS2015 update 2 introduced it and update 3 removed it.

    2. Re:How do I turn the telemetry off this time? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And it's just me who wonders why they add something like this, without any documentation of the calls whatsoever, and only admit it sheepishly when we basically find them with their hand in the cookie jar?

      If you add calls me my binaries, I sure as FUCK expect you to tell me up front. If not, tell me one good reason why I should EVER trust your compiler again.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:How do I turn the telemetry off this time? by C+R+Johnson · · Score: 1

      We work on a network which is isolated from the internets. No telemetry.

      --
      The alternative to limited government is unlimited government.
  14. Privacy policy by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know if they've fixed the privacy concerns about the Community edition yet?

    Last time I checked, there were multiple inter-related privacy policies that seemed to apply, but between those and the general terms it seemed clear that they could upload more-or-less anything (including, say, your code) through their telemetry processes. You also needed a Microsoft account to even continue using the IDE after a few days.

    This sort of nonsense simply shouldn't be necessary in real world development tools.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  15. Re:Anyone familiar with this? by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    Don't be ridiculous. That's what we have EMACS for.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  16. Re:64-bit by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's 2017 and Visual Studio is still 32-bit.

    Unless you have specific use cases 64-bit doesn't always mean better. Most apps don't need the extra address space, and jumping to 64-bit means doubling your pointer sizes, which increases memory usage, reduces locality, and puts a larger burden on cache.

    In VS's case they did the math and 32-bit was better. They've said this for years now. It's not a bad thing.

  17. Re:64-bit by turp182 · · Score: 1

    I'm assuming you meant Visual Cobol...

    https://www.microfocus.com/pro...

    --
    BlameBillCosby.com
  18. Re: Microsoft is good once again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    wasted cycles are wasted cycles.. sloppy javascript cruft is annoying.

  19. Re:Microsoft is good once again by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Now that the fat ass Ballmer is gone the company is really turning itself around

    Only if you ignore their snoopware push.

  20. Re:64-bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What? We have a minimum of 16 GB to run that bloatware because otherwise just editing text files is slow as hell due to swapping. VisualStudio needs at least 8 GB in order to edit text files. That requires more than 32 bit.

    Same here. Trivial projects are fine with a 32-bit IDE. Running 2017, my devenv.exe right now is 1.4GB by itself and has ~50 child processes, which total another 2GB or so. If I open a XAML file, that usually doubles shortly thereafter.

    Instead of making the IDE 64-bit to hold all the relevant data structures in a clean fashion, they wind up duplicating data and increasing CPU load by utilizing subprocesses. It reminds me of someone using segmentation to avoid migrating from 16-bit to 32-bit. Sad!

  21. Re:64-bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I run multiple instances of VS of various versions (2008, 2010, 2012, 2015) at any given time. Each instance takes around 300MB, on average. One of the larger solutions (87 projects in that solution) takes close to 1GB.

    All of them run fast enough unless there's something else weird going on (not uncommon, but not a daily occurrence).

    You need 8GB just to run one instance and that instance runs slowly? Whatever you're doing, you're doing it wrong.

    And, BTW, the devenv.exe binary is 32-bit and won't take more than 4GB of memory, so you're also technically incorrect. (The best kind of incorrect?)

  22. Re:Microsoft is good once again by nmb3000 · · Score: 1

    I don't see what people find interesting or exciting about .NET Core -- it's just a rebranding of the compact framework with some additional supported platforms. Honestly, the entire point of it seems to be to try and entice people to use Azure for hosted stuff and only use small parts of the framework for desktop apps (pushing them towards the "Universal" appy-store apps and away from full Win32 style desktop).

    --
    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
    /)
  23. Re:Visual Studio? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    yes slashdot also showing ad for 21st development wares, MicroFocus Visual COBOL. Get it while it's hot!

  24. FYI: No ISO download by rastos1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    But you should be able to create an offline installer

    1. Re:FYI: No ISO download by Scarred+Intellect · · Score: 1

      The offline installer process has worked fine for me for the RC.

      It actually seems to be working better with the officially released version.

    2. Re:FYI: No ISO download by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 1

      Thank you. Was looking for a way to download this for my team without re-downloading for every user.

    3. Re:FYI: No ISO download by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      Expect it to take a long time though: So far it has downloaded 10GB of files and has >3300 top-level folders. No progress indication. :-(

    4. Re:FYI: No ISO download by rastos1 · · Score: 1

      I just keep some windows VMs around. On Win2008 server it failed outright. On W10 it exhausted the disk space after a short while. So I started to look around how big the beast actually is. The HW requirements says - up to 40GB; based on selected features. The offline installer can be forced to download less if you restrict it only one language (who would want a localized IDE??), e.g. with "--lang en-US" - which trims it down to ~19GB ... I think I'll pass for now.

    5. Re:FYI: No ISO download by MobyDisk · · Score: 2

      FYI: Final result, without using --lang, is ~16.3GB (17,595,078,265 bytes) and 4,606 files.

  25. Re:64-bit by SirSlud · · Score: 2

    You might as well just have posted, "I don't know anything about software development."

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  26. Step-by-step impressions (first use) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

    After testing it for some minutes, I found two interesting issues:
    - It loads pretty quickly. Right after restarting my computer, the fastest one is VS 2012, then 2017 and, finally, 2015. But, when executing them for a second time, 2017 becomes even faster than 2012.
    - It has some new project types (.NET Core and .NET Standard), which are only present in C# (no more duplication of everything C#-VB.NET?!). And here I found a not so pleasant surprise: after creating a new .NET Standard project and the opening window including (sorry about the crappy indentation, but the editor forced me to use less 'junk' characters):

    using System;

    namespace ClassLibrary
    {
    public class Class1
    {
    }
    }

    ... VS complained about not being able to find the System namespace!! and the class being wrong because of not finding System.Object!! I guess that this has to do with my initial selection of modules (perhaps VB.NET not supporting the new projects is another consequence), but come on!! How can the code generated by default be faulty?! This isn't a bug, this is pure terrorism! LOL.

    I usually let new VS or .NET versions to be improved during some time (e.g., various years) before using them, to avoid "peculiarities" like the aforementioned one or simply because of being happy with my current version. But I will do a small exception this time: I have to develop a reasonably big C# code during the next weeks and do feel like trying VS 2017 (by assuming that it can keep up). So, I will write the third and final part of this post in some weeks, after having got a proper feeling about this new version.

    --
    Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    1. Re:Step-by-step impressions (first use) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      I have realised that discussions are archived after around 15 days. This isn't enough time for completing the aforementioned whole code, but it should be more than enough to get a good idea about VS 2017.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    2. Re: Step-by-step impressions (first use) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      I will not let you down, supportive (other) AC!

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
  27. Re:Microsoft is good once again by Kielistic · · Score: 1

    it's just a rebranding of the compact framework with some additional supported platforms

    When one of the supported platforms is now Linux it's a pretty big deal. The people that are interested in web applications but like to work in a programming language that doesn't suck no longer have to be shoehorned into Ruby or, heaven-forbid, JavaScript.

  28. Re:64-bit by ebyrob · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Try installing that "64-bit" version. Pretty sure devenv.exe is still going in "Program Files(x86)".

    See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-...
    About **still** using msvsmon.exe to debug 64-bit in 32-bit VS...

  29. Re:64-bit by ebyrob · · Score: 1

    Ya, cause windows on windows is such a great idea for core applications.

  30. Visual C++ for Linux! by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No I am not making this up either. Also a beta version of Visual Studio for Mac is available too as well as better Android and IOS support. VS since 2015 also comes with Java and Android emulators as well via Hyper-V.

    MS is getting quite serious about being cross platform

  31. Re:Coumminty edition is FREE! Not crippled by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Informative

    The community edition is not the crippled express editions. You can even make professional software with it too. THe only difference is the MSDN subscription and corporate Team Foundation features for teams and groups.

    THe Community Edition even comes with Git and Git tools to use for things like Github.

    So why is everyone whining? Things are not free to make and like Redhat there is CentOS for those who do not need enterprise support but is there for those that do.

  32. Re:64-bit by DrXym · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I've run out of memory in large projects on other IDEs. I don't think it would be of the question that you could burn through 3.5GB if you had a workspace with lots of projects in different configs and targets with runtimes in memory all at the same time.

    Given that Windows has more or less become defacto 64-bit with just a few 32-bit outliers on tablets, it doesn't make much sense to remain 32-bit any more.

  33. Re:Coumminty edition is FREE! Not crippled by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    ANd yes replying to myself I also want to address the grand parent for things like SQL Server.

    If you want the full thing go to www.technet.com and download it? It timebombs after 180 days but MS allows you to run it and Windows Server Enterprise editions free for non production or business use for IT professionals in virtual or stand alone machines. The Community Edition comes with SQL Server Express but I downloaded both the SQL Server for Linux 2016 and the regular win64 SQL Sever 2014 and Server 2012 R2 that I run in Hyper-V on my desktop.

  34. New Bollywood twist on the old song .... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

    Now Satya has to do the song and dance, "developers, developers, developers ...." . But this time the music will be arranged by AR Rahman, and the famed dance coach Puliyur Saroja who directed the dances of the Superstar Rajnikant will choreograph the performance.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  35. Re:Microsoft is good once again by DrXym · · Score: 2
    VS Code is actually quite good and cross platform. I've used it extensively on Linux and gdb plugin is pretty handy.

    My main criticism of it is is that it's a pain in the ass to configure. Just like Atom, Brackets, Sublime etc., it does away with a proper settings dialog and configuration is by editing a JSON-esque file. Even if this makes sense for advanced configuration it really sucks just to configure some simple thing.

  36. Re: 64-bit by judoguy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    VFP was for serous database programmers. VB was for looks.

    I used to get hired to create VFP layers to bridge SQL Server, AS400 and other databases to other apps because it just worked and worked well.

    Wasn't a "real" Windows app in some UI ways, but when you needed to push/pull data to and from disparate back ends and integrate that data into COM based Outlook, Word, Excel and other Windows based applications, there was nothing better. We'd have C# guys come in and try to migrate VFP apps and they'd whine at the requirements to do things that are simple in VFP.

    In 35 years of heavy relational database focused consulting on different platforms, nothing was as easy to use or as powerful as VFP.

    So there!

    --
    Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
  37. Re:64-bit by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

    With the HPC C++ project I am working on even with the Intel tools loaded and after using stuff like Vtune and a debugger I am getting about 200MB of usage with VS2017 and under VS2015 I end up with about 500MB of usage. I also do not see a bunch of children processes. At least from my experience VS2015 is faster and lower resource usage than Eclipse or PyCharm.

    At least with C++ the resource usage seems pretty minimal.

    --
    Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
  38. Re:64-bit by DaHat · · Score: 1

    +1

    I am jealous. The 26 project solution (~6500 *.cs files, ~500 *.ts) I've got open in 2015 has Task Manager reporting ~1.5gb of use... granted ReSharper adds to some of the CPU/memory usage as well.

    One of these weeks/months/years we will break up this monolith... until then, much CPU/clock time is spent paging things to disk rather than allow the process to grow to a size it would use more of my local machines memory.

    With any luck I'll be able to throw 2017 on the machine this evening & give it a look.

  39. Doesn't do C++x17 by ameline · · Score: 1

    It says 2017, but that might be misleading -- it does not fully support C++x14 (release notes say "better" x14 support. I'd like to see "full x14 compliance & support"). And they're a ways from full x17 support.

    You get spoiled using Clang/LLVM

    --
    Ian Ameline
    1. Re:Doesn't do C++x17 by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      It says 2017, but that might be misleading -- it does not fully support C++x14 (release notes say "better" x14 support. I'd like to see "full x14 compliance & support"). And they're a ways from full x17 support.

      You get spoiled using Clang/LLVM

      Apparently it has all the stuff added in C++14, what is missing is C++11 and C++98 support :D

      See VS2017 Release Notes - C++

      the compiler is complete for features added in the C++14 Standard. Note that the compiler still lacks a few features from the C++11 and C++98 Standards.

    2. Re:Doesn't do C++x17 by Jezral · · Score: 1

      They are actively working on full C++ language support. But, 2017 doesn't mean C++17 - the release year has nothing to do with what it supports. The actual version is VS15 (VS 2015 was version 14).

      MS is working on language support in two ways. First, they're trying to get two-phase lookup into their own frontend, but this has been very slow work because it doesn't even have an AST. Secondly, they're working on an Clang based frontend, which already has all the goodies. You can already install the Clang preview right from VS itself.

      (And, what's with C++x17? You either say C++1z or C++17 - you do not say C++x17 - the letters are only for unofficial versions. The versions go: C++0x, C++11, C++1y, C++14, C++1z, C++17 ... C++2x, C++20)

  40. Re:64-bit by rl117 · · Score: 1

    I've read the pages where Microsoft attempt to justify this decision, e.g. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.c.... I don't buy it. It's institutional laziness and resistance to change first and foremost. Choosing on a per-application basis whether to make it 32-bit or 64-bit is madness, especially in the situation here where you force every plugin and library being loaded to be 32-bit. You're developing a *system*, but it's really an agglomeration of different bits with little coherence or common direction. Linux distributions got this right. The whole installation is x86 or amd64. No confused mess of the two, x86 compat libs aside. We didn't agonise over minutiae, we did a complete conversion by treating them as two separate architctures, with biarch and multiarch for running legacy code. As is typical for Microsoft, they didn't have a transition plan, leaving much of their product line 32-bit only despite most developers and user having fully transitioned to x64 Windows over a decade or more back. Meanwhile on FreeBSD, Linux and MacOS X 32-bit is a distant memory on 64-bit platforms; the transition was done well over a decade back for many distributions as amd64 rebuilds were completed. What's tragic is they did the exact same thing with the 32-bit transition. Remember what a mess it was in the mid-90s to mid 2000s with a jumble of 16- and 32-bit code? It's exactly the same mess today with 32-bit and 64-bit code! They need some direction from the top to pull their fingers out and go 64-bit only, or do builds of both. If the BSD and Linux distros can build code for >10 architectures then I'm sure Microsoft can manage two, or three if we count their arm port (which is even more limited due to their x86 depenence, who would have expected that... Maybe build all your code on all architectures and x64 and arm could be first-class citizens.)

  41. Re:Fanboi here by LesFerg · · Score: 1

    Instead of going "yay VS 2017" I googled "Couldn't install Visual Studio 2017 community edition"

    SHIT TON of hits. More than a million. Sad, just sad.

    Did you do a quick review of those reports to see how many of them were from Nov/Dec 2016, and referred to one of the release candidate versions?

    You might want to note that release candidate installations are usually created for the purpose of discovering the problems which occur for different users with different environments etc, so they appear to have served their exact purpose, and enough people were enthusiastic about VS2017 to both participate as an early tester and post reports about their problems. Looks like an acceptable software rollout process to me.

    --
    If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
  42. Re:64-bit by Hussman32 · · Score: 1

    A relative works at a bank programming exclusively in COBOL, and does quite well. That language will be around for quite some time.

    --
    "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
  43. Re:Comes with CLANG by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    Go use Clang then? It is included in VS 2015 and VS 2017

  44. Re:64-bit by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    If they are child processes they run in their own 32-bit space and don't count against the memory uded by the parent process.

  45. Will the new Community Edition Be Uninstallable? by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

    I once installed the 2015 Community edition on a Windows 7 system to check it out, kick the tires, etc.

    It shit all over the system, there was no integrated installer (of the type there is when you install Microsoft Office) and it created 'restore points' for every single package and component that it pulled down and installed. I wanted to maybe check out some Visual Basic and C++ and dabble with it a bit.

    It installed the whole SQL tool chain, server, etc. There really weren't any options for installing just the components to run VS on a standalone machine, in the fashion that there was with Visual C++ 6.0 back in the day.

    The VS installer basically shit all over my system, and uninstalling it would have involved manually uninstalling each component part using the Control Panel. The 'restore points' were totally consumed going way back in 'history' because it set a restore point for each and every fricking component.

    Have they gotten any better with that? I am a little bit afraid to try installing it to find out.

  46. More stupid stuff by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    What's really bad is that the QB64 that compiles an enhanced version of Microsoft's QuickBASIC has one code base that compiles a 32 bit and a 64 bit IDE. Granted there are limitations such as the 32 bit IDE only compiles 32 bit programs and the 64 bit IDE compiles only 64 bit programs, but it has that feature.

  47. Re: 64-bit by sr180 · · Score: 1

    Thats because tthe object oriented features were buggy as all hell. I have never worked with a program that was as buggy as Foxpro.
    Ignore the object oriented stuff - and it was rock solid. Its as if all the code Microsoft bought was solid, and everything they added was swiss cheese.

    --
    In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
  48. Re:64-bit by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1

    Your experience with other ides means Visual Studio should be 64 bit? Nope, sorry, try again. Everything else is 64 bit? Not a good justification.

    Your scenario of lots of stuff doesn't make sense for VS. You would have a current config and target for each project, but that info is mostly for the build chain. The IDE loads some metadata, but you're more likely to run out of memory due to larger pointers than anything else.

    There are good ones out there, but you haven't really made an effort here.

  49. Re:Will the new Community Edition Be Uninstallable by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

    VS2017 has a new installer that's supposed to be better at managing components, languages, etc. I haven't tried it myself though, so I can't give a recommendation either way.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  50. vim 8 by stridebird · · Score: 1

    Meanwhile, in other news, Bram Moolenaar releases vim 8

  51. Re:64-bit by spongman · · Score: 1

    it's pretty easy to OOM Visual Studio with huge C# projects - the language service just brings it to its knees.

    but for a file->new->todo-list product launch demo it works just fine. ship it!

  52. Re: 64-bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yes. For at least 12 years

  53. VC - POS by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 1

    The last time I installed VC (taking several hours)... it was not able to completely un-install. It wrapped itself around IE and popped up a debugger every time IE encountered a buggy web page.

  54. Re: 64-bit by dunkelfalke · · Score: 2

    It is not just about memory. Twice as many registers, 64 bit integers, faster syscalls and so on.

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  55. Re:64-bit by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

    I code all my apps in COBOL

    I app all my apps in Intercal.

  56. Re:64-bit by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

    That seems to answer my question of "should I upgrade?". Actually I have a more general question, apart from 2017 allowing me to leverage the synergy of the cloud in more cromulent ways than before, is there any reason to move from 2015? Specifically, have they improved the compiler diagnostics or PREfast analysis in any significant way (2013 and 2015 were identical in that regard)? That's what I really want a compiler for, the rest is just window-dressing.

  57. Re: 64-bit by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

    I'm sure I read somewhere that the extra registers are part of the processor package and not limited to 64bit use - you just need a compiler which understands how to use them in 32bit mode...

  58. Re:64-bit by DrXym · · Score: 1
    Actually my scenario does make a lot of sense and it is not hard to find examples of people who've run out of memory using Visual Studio in similar circumstances. And given the operating system and the typical development PC is capable of handling a 64-bit IDE, it makes very little sense to not provide one. Even if it's a choice presented during installation.

    The only reason to stay 32-bit is legacy dependencies, native extensions and so on. Staying there because 3.5GB is good enough for most people (where have we heard that sort of argument before) isn't a good reason. Ironically Microsoft themselves recognize these limits themselves and have written blogs about how they've strived to reduce memory consumption that was hitting the limits. Even some of their scenario improvements still leave consumption in excess of 3GB.

  59. And now debugging in VS2008 is broken by fisternipply · · Score: 1

    Installing VS2017 overwrites a dll shared by VS2008 that handles the debugger. So with this new release, devs now need to run VS2008 inside a VM for it to work properly.

  60. Re:64-bit by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

    I've run out of memory in large projects on other IDEs.

    It means that your "other IDE" is a memory hog.
    Visual Studio is quite light for the amount of features it offer, you won't get to 4GB that easily.

    In fact, that limit pushes Microsoft to reduce their memory consumption. That alone is worth staying at 32 bits. Software eating up all your memory for no good reason is one of my pet peeves.

  61. Re:64-bit by DrXym · · Score: 1
    I hope you realise the contradiction in what you're saying. If 4GB is not a problem then why are Microsoft "pushed" to reduce consumption? Why is it they seem more "pushed" of late than they have in the past? The reality is that Microsoft are "pushed" because they're hitting that limit. I linked to a blog post elsewhere as one example of that and it's not hard to find people hitting the wall for themselves. And besides, even if the software were available in 64-bit that does not stop Microsoft optimizing the product to use less memory.

    And no it's not that other IDEs I use are memory hogs, and more a reflection that some software projects, such as the ones I develop in those IDEs are extremely large. Not just to develop against but when they're debugged and the IDE sags the weight of a large project with all its symbolic info, debug state and profiling that's going on. Indeed in some cases there might be multiple things being debugged at once.

  62. Re:Step-by-step impressions (assessment) by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

    I have finished my analysis of VS 2017 much sooner than expected because of deciding to continue writing the aforementioned code with the 2012 version. Without getting a too bad impression about it, I didn't feel comfortable enough to continue; additionally, I found what IMHO is a serious issue which should be fixed right away.

    As already pointed out, the modularity of 2017 is very appealing and allows a very light environment which is certainly quick; as quick as the much older and under-featured 2012. Note that, during the installation, I selected the main C#/VB.NET desktop and web options and some basic Visual C++. For me, just this issue makes this version more appealing than 2015.

    In its default configuration, 2017 has much more coding helps (all the bells and whistles automatically appearing when typing or moving the mouse or similar) than 2012 and 2015. This is one of the defining features of VS with respect to other IDEs, but Microsoft might have brought things way too far on this front. Nothing of this seems to affect the VS usability (quick and responsive; additionally, all these functionalities are likely to be easily disabled) and that’s why I cannot say that is completely wrong. Small details helping to improve your coding experience are certainly nice, but including too many details which virtually nobody would ever use (e.g., showing some information when placing the cursor in certain area which can quickly be retrieved in 3 different ways) doesn't seem too logical. All this is even more relevant by bearing in mind the usual evolution of VS releases: first versions full of bugs which usually take over 1 year to be fixed. They have an excellent underlying framework (almost none of the new features since VS 2008 have improved my coding experience in a relevant way), why unnecessarily making it buggy or kind of joker-of-all-trades-master-of-none? I think that Microsoft should eminently focus on delivering reliable and bug-free versions, rather than on continue adding not-too-useful features.

    In general terms, I felt quite comfortable working on VS 2017 (at least, before discovering the problem below), but by basically using it as VS 2012. Note that I continued a C# (library + console) project created in VS 2012. Right at the start, I saw a curious error-over-reporting issue: a simple 1 error in 2012 clearly stating the problem (wrong definition of a class) vs. 88 in 2017 (one for the wrongly-defined class and 87 for further references to that class). I saw also other weirdnesses like expanding a tree of sub-folders in the project window which got suddenly closed. But all these things happened just once or twice and I was kind of expecting them, so I didn't really mind any of this (on the other hand, this should be seen by Microsoft as bad news: I do expect random errors and glitches in a first VS version because this has always been the case!).

    The real deal breaker was the problems with the debugger: it plainly doesn't work as it should. I tested the created-in-VS-2012-a-bit-complex code, also new-2017-extremely-simple projects and the behaviour was always quite chaotic via ignoring lines for no clear reason. For example, I usually write codes including something like string string1 = "whatever"; string1 = string1;, where the whole purpose of the second line is to hold a break-point (where I will see the string1 properties via the popup window); VS 2017 skips the break-point in this second line! And this skipping-lines behaviour occurs in other situations, what makes the whole debugging process very uncomfortable right away (I have relevant experience in different IDEs and languages, VS and C# among them; I don't need to spend even one minute to try to fully understand the unexpected behaviour of a debugger to know that I don't like it). Hopefully, this is just a buggy behaviour and Microsoft hasn't actually modified the way in which the VS debugger has always worked. Another issue I didn't like too much about debugging was the fact that the break-poin

    --
    Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.