Build 2021: Microsoft releases Visual Studio 2019 v16.10 and its own OpenJDK

Build 2021: Microsoft releases Visual Studio 2019 v16.10 and its own OpenJDK

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2019 v16.10 and the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK among a string of announcements at its Build 2021 developer conference.

The Build conference is Microsoft’s primary developer event, and always delivers a number of new releases as well as information on Microsoft platforms. See The Register, DevClass’ sister publication, for additional coverage.

Visual Studio 2019 v16.10 is now generally available. According to Microsoft it builds on the themes of developer productivity and convenience. New in this release is C++20 support, with the compiler and standard libraries now feature-complete for the latest C++20 standard.

Among the features this brings are calendars, timezones and <format>, available under the /std:c++latest switch. Microsoft says it is not yet ready as some features are expected to change via Defect Reports.

The <format> is a new facility for text formatting based on fmtlib. It provides a fast and safe alternative to iostreams and the printf family. Calendars and timezones extend the existing <chrono> facilities, delivering functionality for representing and manipulating dates and times in a type-safe and time-zone aware fashion.

Among the Git productivity enhancements is a new branch picker in the status bar that lets users filter local and remote branches and perform common actions from a right-click context menu. These include checking out a local or remote branch, and fetch and pull from the Git Repository window history pane, even when there are no incoming commits.

Developers working with Docker containers can now run any combination of services defined in compose files, with improved container and image management in the Containers window, according to Microsoft.

Meanwhile, Visual Studio 2019 v16.11 Preview 1 showcases new features in the pipeline, including Hot Reload, which allows developers to modify source code while the application is running, plus support for .NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI).

OpenJDK

Also announced at Build was availability of the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK, which the software giant previously revealed it was developing to use internally as the default Java support across its Azure cloud services, but which is also free for anyone to deploy anywhere.

It includes binaries for Java 11, based on OpenJDK 11.0.11+9 x64 server and desktop environments on MacOS, Linux, and Windows. Microsoft is also releasing a new Early Access binary for Java 16 for Linux and Windows on ARM, based on the latest OpenJDK 16.0.1+9 version.

To accompany the new OpenJDK, Microsoft has released its own build of OpenJDK Docker images and corresponding Dockerfiles. These are available to be used by any Java applications or Java application components for deployment anywhere, the firm said. OpenJDK 11 versions of the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK are Long-Term Support (LTS) releases and will receive free quarterly updates, Microsoft said.