If you are a software developer within the Windows environment, you already know Visual Studio. It’s Microsoft’s IDE, Integrated Development Environment, on which you can develop applications but also websites, web apps, web services, smartphone apps. After two years since the last update, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2017, with many improvements – and one feature certainly long-awaited.
Now, you can finally choose which components will be installed, so you’ll have exactly what you need. The performances are very much enhanced, especially in the debugging phase, now pretty quick. Visual Studio tools are integrated with the cloud (considering that Microsoft is responsible for the excellent Azure cloud computing service, it’s obvious), and the ability to collaborate on projects has been improved.
Unlike Apple, Microsoft makes Visual Studio also for Mac. And speaking of Apple: Visual Studio 2017 allows developers to create apps for iOS (and Android too). Among the enhancements of this edition, there is also a more general performance optimization, with the focus also and especially on devices with little memory or slower processors.
Visual Studio 2017 is free for students (Community version), and costs start from $499 for the professional or enterprise versions. It can also be purchased as a subscription: this includes resources for training and support. However, you can download a free trial version at this link.
And if you prefer to use other software to program or to develop, take a good look at our category page!