Coinciding with the release of VS2017 15.7, Microsoft has made available the first preview of 15.8. This release debuts support for compiling apps for ARM64, and Docker support for ASP.NET Core. Joining this are a few changes to C++ editing and the reintroduction of LibMan for web projects.
15.8 includes new features to make it easier to add Docker support to ASP.NET Core web projects. Docker functionality can be added when creating a brand new ASP.NET Core web app, or it can be added to an existing project. A given container can target Windows or Linux.
Quick Info tooltips for C++ projects have been helpfully expanded to provide more details on C++ macros. In 15.8, these tooltips will now show both the macro’s definition and what it expands to. These provide greater clarity to developers to understand what is happening at that particular piece of code.
Library Manager (aka LibMan) debuted in a preview release of 15.7, but was held out of the final 15.7 build. LibMan returns to VS2017 in 15.8 and is designed as a lightweight replacement for Bower. LibMan will acquire the files your web app needs and place them in the directory you specify for your web app’s project.
With 15.8, developers can now start having their projects target the ARM64 platform. This support covers C++ UWP applications, .NET Native UWP apps, and Win32 apps written in C++. In order to enable this support, you will need to select the "C++ Universal Windows Platform Tools for ARM64" Individual Component from the Visual Studio Installer. It should be noted that as this is still pre-release, ARM64 apps cannot be uploaded to the Microsoft Store.
As is the usual case with preview releases, VS2017 15.8 is not licensed for use in production environments and should not be used to generate production code.
