Microsoft’s John Montgomery has officially announced that the company is working on Visual Studio 2019. Montgomery stated that this is being announced now because the company will begin to make changes targeting this release in publicly viewable GitHub repositories (including .NET and Roslyn).
Specific features that will be delivered in VS2019 are not provided, rather Montgomery lists various themes that the project will address:
- Expanded code refactorings
- Better navigation (assuming within the IDE)
- Improved debugger / more capabilities
- Continued focus on performance: faster solution loading and faster build times
- Live Share
- Use Azure AI for IntelliCode
- Improved Git integration
The exact timing of when VS2019 will be available is not known, but for reference VS2017 debuted in March 2017 and was preceded by several preview builds throughout 2016. Similarly, one would expect the first preview build of VS2019 in late summer / early autumn. Fortunately VS2019 is being designed to install side-by-side with existing VS2017 builds, so it will be easy to try out the new release when it is available.
A key fact about this next release, according to Montgomery, is that it will remain a 32-bit application and will support Windows 7. Initial developer reactions indicate there are concerns about the unresolved issues and code quality problems with VS2017, and that it is premature to shift to VS2019. Montgomery does not offer specifics, but does indicate that he is working to improve this with the development team.
