Microsoft has revealed details of its forthcoming Visual Studio 2022, which will be a 64-bit application with a revamped user interface, plus support for .NET 6 and C++20 tooling, among other features.
Announcing the upcoming Visual Studio 2022 on its Visual Studio Blog , Microsoft said there would be a Visual Studio 2022 Preview release in the near future, but declined to specify a date, saying simply “stay tuned for announcements”.
The headline change in Visual Studio 2022 is that it will be a 64-bit application. This means that the 4GB memory limit imposed on 32-bit executables no longer applies, meaning developers can edit and debug even the largest projects without running out of memory. However, Microsoft was quick to point out that developers will still be able to build 32-bit Windows executables with Visual Studio.
Microsoft said it is refreshing the user interface for Visual Studio 2022 to modernise it and minimise crowding. The overall aim is to reduce complexity and decrease the cognitive load so that developers can focus and stay in the zone, the firm said. For Mac users, Visual Studio for Mac is moving to the native MacOS user interface, and Microsoft is aiming to make the developer environment of Visual Studio more consistent between Mac and Windows. The new Git experience from Visual Studio will also be coming to Visual Studio for Mac, for example.
As might be expected, Microsoft claimed that Visual Studio 2022 will make it “quick and easy to build modern, cloud-based applications with Azure”. It will come with a set of repositories that describe common patterns used in modern apps, and pre-built GitHub workflows and actions that provide developers with a complete CI/CD solution when a project is created. However, many developers commenting on the Visual Studio blog complained about a lack of Source Link support for Azure DevOps for organisations not using Git for version control.
Meanwhile, Visual Studio 2022 will have full support for .NET 6 and its unified framework for web, client, and mobile apps for both Windows and Mac developers. New C++20 language features will simplify managing large codebases and improved diagnostics will make the tough problems easier to debug with templates and concepts, Microsoft said.
Other improvements slated for Visual Studio 2022 include performance improvements in the core debugger, while a feature called Live Share will introduce integrated text chat to enable real-time collaboration between developers. Enhanced support for Git and GitHub is promised, along with improvements in the AI IntelliCode engine in Visual Studio to better anticipate the developer’s next move.
Microsoft said that Visual Studio 2022 is still a work in progress, and developers can use the new Developer Community to see feature requests, upvote them, or create their own.