The Philippine subsidiary of Microsoft introduced recently the newest version of its flagship integrated development platform, Visual Studio 2013, for the development of websites, Web services, consoles, graphical user interface, and applications.
Now made available in the cloud, Visual Studio 2013 is expected to allow developers to create apps across all devices whenever and wherever they are. The solution is also meant to enable greater productivity and collaboration among developers and development teams.
Alvin Gendrano, developer and platform evangelism director at Microsoft Philippines, said one of the main goals for Visual Studio 2013 is to provide a new user experience for both developers and consumers.
?At Microsoft Philippines, we introduce innovative devices and services to empower not just the Filipino consumers but our local talented developers in our journey to bring enjoyable and relevant apps,? Gendrano said.
Among the core new features in Visual Studio 2013 are: Peek Definition, CodeLens, XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) editor, Browser Link, Office 365 Cloud Business Apps, Performance and Diagnostics hub, Agile Portfolio Management, and Team Room.
Peek Definition allows viewing a definition in an inline view without leaving the context of one’s line of code. The CodeLens takes this further, letting one drill into the line of code?s history.
The XAML editor is said to provide advances in IntelliSense, which is now also available for data binding, template binding, and resources.
Meanwhile, Browser Link connects Visual Studio to one or more open modern browsers in an interactive development experience to keep them in sync with one’s markup changes without needing manual browser refreshes to see the changes the user is making.
The Office 365 Cloud Business Apps run in the cloud, taking advantage of the platform capabilities exposed by Windows Azure and Office 365.
The Performance and Diagnostics hub, on the other hand, provides a unified experience for various tools available in Visual Studio while the Agile Portfolio Management can help in managing large and complex workloads in an agile way.
As for the Team Rooms, they provide an area for fostering and capturing communication among team members, both near and far. It serves as a team project’s activity feed for keeping the team informed of code check-ins, build status, work assignment, and more.
Microsoft also announced Visual Studio 2013 enables the development of most of the apps today on Windows Store and also enables various apps on Windows Phone. — Tom Noda
