Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview is out. You can download the web installer here,
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27543
or the full ISO image here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27538
NOTE: I had a problem on one machine with the web installer. If you run into installation issues, download and mount the ISO instead.
IDE
Project and solution backward compatibility. Open and edit projects and solutions
created by using Visual Studio 2010 in Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview without
converting the Visual Studio 2010 project first. The project and solution can
then be opened again in Visual Studio 2010, as long as you have not implemented
any code that has a dependency on any Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview-only
features. For more information, see Installing Visual Studio Versions Side-by-Side.
Browse code in Solution Explorer. Access code browsing features directly from Solution
Explorer. You can browse the types and members in your projects, search for symbols,
view a method’s Call Hierarchy, find symbol references, and more, without having
to switch between multiple tool windows. For more information, see Viewing the
Structure of Code.
Visual Studio Templates support for C++. You can now author C++ project and item
templates using the Visual Studio Templates technology. This was previously unsupported
for C++.
Window Management
Access frequently used file easily. Pin files that you use often to the left side
of the tab well so that you can access them easily regardless of how many files
are opened in the IDE.
File preview in the Code Editor. View files in the editor without opening them to
reduce file clutter in the editor. You can preview files by single-clicking them
in Solution Explorer, during debugging when you step into files, with Go to Definition,
and when you browse through Find Results. Preview files open in a blue colored
tab on the right side of the document tab well. If you modify the file or choose
the Promote button, the file opens.
Enhanced multi-monitor support. Float multiple windows together as a “raft” on other
monitors. You can also create a second instance of Solution Explorer and move
it to another monitor. To return all windows back to the original monitor, press
Ctrl + double-click
Search
Quick command search. Use the new Quick Launch feature to quickly locate menu commands,
open Options dialog box pages, or switch between open documents. As you enter
a keyword, Quick Launch filters the list of possible matches automatically. Press
Enter or click an entry to open the dialog box or window associated with the
command.
Tool window search. The Toolbox, Solution Explorer, Error List, and Team Explorer
windows, among others, let you filter the visible content in those windows. Enter
a keyword in the search box located at the top of each window to filter the view.
.NET Framework regular expressions. The Find and Replace control and the Find in
Files and Replace in Files dialog boxes now use .NET Framework regular expression
syntax. This syntax replaces the Visual Studio regular expression syntax used
in previous releases of Visual Studio.
Find and Replace control. Ctrl+F displays the Find and Replace user interface at
the upper-right of documents in the editor. Matches are highlighted as you type,
and you can navigate backward and forward through the matches in the current
file.
Javascript
IntelliSense enhancements. IntelliSense performance is improved and feature support
is enhanced, as described in this section. To customize behavior of the JavaScript
Code Editor and IntelliSense, on the menu bar, select Tools, Options, Text Editor.
Support for ECMAScript 5 and the HTLM5 DOM.
Parameter Help improvements. You can provide IntelliSense for fields, function overloads,
and variables by using /// code comments.
Signatures in statement completion. You can see function signatures on the right
side of the statement completion list.
Immediate feedback. IntelliSense includes statement completion for identifiers in
the active document when accurate information about objects is not available.
For more information, see Statement Completion for Identifiers.
Implicit references. You can control which objects are available in the global scope
by using reference groups. To configure reference groups, on the menu bar, choose
Tools, Options, Text Editor, JavaScript, IntelliSense, References. For information
about references, choose F1 on specific UI elements.
Breakpoints. You can set breakpoints on specific locations in a single line of code.
For example, in the code var y = 5; var x = 10;, you can just set the breakpoint
on var x = 10;.
Script Loader. Delay-loaded scripts are now loaded in the development environment,
which allows IntelliSense to provide information about the script objects.
Brace matching. Matching braces are highlighted when the cursor is on the left side
of an opening brace or on the right side of a closing brace.
Outlining. New navigational aids include collapsible functions in the editor.
Go To Definition. You can put your cursor in a function and press F12 (or right-click
and select Go To Definition) to open the JavaScript file that contains the definition
of the function. The page opens at the location in the file where the function
is defined. Go To Definition is not supported for generated files.
Drag-and-drop references. You can drag .js files from Solution Explorer to the JavaScript
Code Editor, where they are added as references. References added in this manner
are put at the top of the page in the Code Editor.
Async Features
Visual Basic and C# introduce the Async feature, which makes asynchronous programming
almost as straightforward as synchronous programming. Asynchronous code traditionally
has required you to define continuations to capture what happens after a called
asynchronous operation finishes. This complicates your code, and makes routine
tasks such as exception handling awkward and difficult.
By using the Async feature, you can call asynchronous methods without defining continuations,
and without splitting your code across multiple methods or lambda expressions.
Debugging and Tools
Debugger
Remote debugging. The Visual Studio remote debugging process is simplified. Installing
and running the remote debugger does not require manual firewall configuration
on either the remote computer or the Visual Studio computer. You can more easily
discover and connect to computers running the remote debugger in the Select Remote
Debugger Connection dialog box.
IntelliTrace
Collecting IntelliTrace data with the stand-alone utilities. The IntelliTrace collection
utilities let you collect logs of IntelliTrace events and other debugging information
about computers that do not have Visual Studio installed. The utilities do not
alter the computer in any way, and you uninstall them just by deleting the folder.
Because of the low-impact installation of the utilities, you can use IntelliTrace
log files to debug issues that appear on production servers and other computers
where maintaining the computer configuration is very important.
Note that IntelliTrace log files can be opened only on computers running Visual Studio
Ultimate.
Code Analysis
Code Analysis window. Code analysis warnings now appear on the Code Analysis tool
window. On the window, you can now filter messages by keyword, project, and severity.
Selecting a message in the window highlights the line in the source code editor
where the message was triggered. For certain C++ warnings, the message lists
source lines that show you the execution path that led to the warning.
New C++ concurrency warnings. The new concurrency warnings help you ensure locking
disciplines in multithreaded C/C++ programs. The analyzer detects several concurrency
bugs. These include potential race conditions, lock order inversions, caller/callee
locking contract violations, and mismatched synchronization operations.
C++ rule sets. You can specify the analysis rules that you want to apply to code
analysis runs by creating or using rule sets.
C++ one-click suppression. On the Code Analysis window, you can insert a pragma into
the source code that suppresses a selected warning.
Parallel Debugging
Two new windows are added for debugging parallel applications:
The GPU Threads window displays the status and the details of the threads running
on the GPU.
The Parallel Watch window displays values of a single expression across multiple
threads at the same time.
The debugging windows now include the following thread-aware features:
The GPU Threads, Threads, Parallel Tasks, Parallel Stacks, and Parallel Watch windows
now include a Show Flagged Only button.
You can flag and unflag threads from the GPU Threads, Threads, Parallel Tasks, Parallel
Stacks, and Parallel Watch windows.
The Debugger Location toolbar has an Unflag All Threads button.
The shortcut menu of the code gutter has Flag All At This Location and Unflag All
At This Location options.
You can flag threads across processes.
You can freeze and thaw threads from both the GPU Threads window and the Parallel
Watch window.
You can sort, reorder, configure, and group in the columns in the GPU Threads, Threads,
Parallel Tasks, and Parallel Watch windows.
Data
LocalDB Engine
The LocalDB engine is a new lightweight version of SQL Server that is used to access
a SQL Server "Denali" database file (.mdf).
NOTE: I am having an issue with this currently when attempting to Add a new table, and
I've posted it on the .NET Forum where they are monitoring issues:
This is a known limitation in this release. In order to edit the schema for a SQL
Denali Database you will have to use the SQL Server node in the Server Explorer.
In order to make a connection to your database follow these steps:
Right
Click on SQL Server in Server Explorer and select "Add SQL Server"
Give
the connection info for your server
Edit the schema of the database
In
my case since I am trying to make a connection to the LocalDB instance I must specify the server name as (LocalDB)\v11.0 and authentication should be Windows
Auth.
SQL Server Node
The new SQL Server node in Server Explorer provides a view that is like SQL Server
Management Studio.
ASP.NET Core Services
ASP.NET core services include enhancements for request validation and new support
for the WebSockets protocol. There is support for bundling and minifying JavaScript,
for asynchronous reading and writing of HTTP requests and responses, and for
asynchronous HTTP modules and handlers. In addition, anti-XSS (cross-site scripting)
encoding APIs have been integrated into the core ASP.NET page framework.
ASP.NET Web Forms
ASP.NET Web Forms now offer model binders for data access, which are like those in
ASP.NET MVC. Model binders let you write code that is called directly by data-bound
controls, which works something like action methods ASP.NET MVC. Additional enhancements
to Web Forms applications include strongly typed data controls, support for client-side
validation using unobtrusive JavaScript, redirection of references to built-in
JavaScript files to the Microsoft CDN, and support for new HTML5 form input types.
Visual Web Developer Enhancements
HTML editor. The new HTML editor offers support for HTML5 features and includes time-saving
features, such as the ability to save selected markup to a user control for reuse
and the ability to configure the HTML editor to automatically validate a page
against the schema specified by its <!DOCTYPE> declaration. Other features
include improved IntelliSense, smart indentation inside tag pairs, automatic
editing of the corresponding tag when you modify one of the tags in a tag pair,
and the automatic insertion of double quotation marks for attribute values.
CSS editor. The CSS editor now offers support for CSS3 and other enhancements. These
include sections that you can expand and collapse, hierarchical indentation based
on parent and child relationships, the ability to comment and uncomment blocks,
improvements in IntelliSense like those in the HTML editor, and a color picker.
JavaScript editor. The JavaScript editor offers support for ECMAScript 5, improvements
in IntelliSense, matching braces, and a Go To Definition feature that moves the
cursor from a variable or function name to its definition when you choose the
F12 key.
Data-Related Enhancements
LocalDB replaces SQL Server Express as the default database engine for development.
This is a lightweight version of SQL Server that has all the programmability
features of a SQL Server database. Server Explorer now has a SQL Server node
that provides tools for working with SQL Server databases. You can add new DataAnnotation
attributes to properties in order to automate validation for frequently used
data types such as e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and credit card numbers.
There are many other enhancements and new features; the above represents a listing
of the ones that would be of most interest to the average developer.
Of course, this all comes with .NET Framework 4.5, which includes .NET for Metro
style apps (Requires Windows 8), Asynchronous operations, HTML5 support and other
features. This is going to be a superb release. The Visual Studio Dev Team has
learned a lot.