Getting up to speed with Visual Studio for Mac
Visual Studio for Mac is a .NET integrated development environment (IDE) on the Mac that can be used to edit, debug, and build code and then publish an app. In addition to the expected features, such as a the editor and a debugger, Visual Studio for Mac includes compilers, code completion tools, source control and more to ease the software development process.
It supports many of the same file types as its Windows counterpart, such as .csproj, .fsproj, or .sln files, and supports features such as EditorConfig, meaning that you can use the IDE that works best for you. Creating, opening, and developing an app will be a familiar experience for anyone who has used Visual Studio on Windows.
In addition, Visual Studio for Mac employs many of the powerful tools that make its Windows counterpart such a powerful IDE. The Roslyn Compiler Platform is used for refactoring and IntelliSense. Its project system and build engine use MSBuild, and its source editor uses the same foundation as Visual Studio on Windows. It uses the same debugger engines for Xamarin and .NET Core apps, and the same designers for Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android.
Visual Studio for Mac: Refresh();
Microsoft has been hard at work making Visual Studio for Mac an even greater environment for building .NET Core applications. Recently, we’ve added features such as .NET Core 3.1 support, ASP.NET Core scaffolding and Blazor support. There’s even more coming, so it’s a great time to take a deep dive into .NET development, be it for games, web, mobile or cloud, using Visual Studio for Mac.
Last month Microsoft hosted the Visual Studio for Mac: Refresh(); event, perfect for getting you up to speed with all the latest features and capabilities. It was a day jam-packed full of demos and conversations around Visual Studio for Mac, and it’s sure to give you ideas for your next big project.
Don’t worry if you missed the event live – all of the talks from the day are available to watch on-demand! Be sure not to miss out on a terrific collection of videos on Visual Studio for Mac, from some of the best speakers at Microsoft.
