Microsoft has announced the general availability of Visual Studio 2017 15.7. InfoQ has closely followed the development of VS2017’s seventh major update, which brings improvements to a number of areas across the IDE.
While this update can be installed in-place over your present copy, there is a benefit to a fresh installation. Changes to the VS2017 installer mean it is now possible to install the core files in one location (say SSD) and the remaining bulk of program files on a separate drive (say larger HDD). This option gives developers the opportunity to maximize their usage of potentially limited SSD space and keep less frequently accessed files on a cheaper (albeit slower) HDD. Note that this type of configuration can only be defined at initial install, so consider your long-term disk space usage before making a change.
As has been the case for the past few releases, improving performance of the VS2017 IDE has been the focus for 15.7 as well. A notable change is that debugging windows are asynchronous so that their updates will not block other Visual Studio operations. Microsoft reports significant speed improvements when it comes to launching the Android emulator for .NET mobile app development.
C++ developers will notice support for ClangFormat has been added, which allows for the enforcement of code style and formatting guidelines. Support for C++ CMake has been expanded, with CMake itself upgraded to 3.11. Visual C++ is now compliant with C++11, C++14, and C++17. This is a great achievement for developers working on cross platform projects and those who want to utilize the latest standards.
For an exhaustive list of the items included in 15.7, be sure to check the release notes. New users who wish to check out Visual Studio 2017 can download it now from Microsoft.