Microsoft: Try to break our first preview of 64-bit Visual Studio – go on, we dare you
- Reference: 1624034049
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/18/vs_2022/
- Source link:
Preview 1 of Visual Studio 2022 comes direct from the department of never-say-never following version after version of the toolset remaining staunchly 32-bit, even as the hardware world changed around it.
The move to 64-bit was [3]announced earlier this year and is an ambitious one considering the ecosystem and sheer size of the Visual Studio codebase.
[4]
Far be it from us to wonder how much cruft might be lurking within a product that has its roots in the previous century.
[5]
[6]
"The 64-bit conversion effort affects every part of Visual Studio, so the scope is much bigger than our usual previews," explained Microsoft senior program manager Justin Johnson in a blog on the matter, meaning that the first release is not so much about whizzbang new features (although there are improvements to IntelliCode even if some bits of VS2019 are missing at present) but more about seeing if the old thing remains upright as programmers prod at it.
[7]Microsoft loves Linux so much that packages.microsoft.com has fallen and can't get up
[8]Mark it in your diaries: 14 October 2025 is the end of Windows 10
[9]Extra urgency in June's Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns six more bugs are being exploited
[10]Version 8 of open-source code editor Notepad++ brings Dark Mode and an ARM64 build, but bans Bing from web searches
Microsoft is particularly keen that developers throw huge and complex solutions at the preview that would have caused wobbles in previous versions. The company boasted that "customers were able to run the IDE for days, even with solutions containing 700 (or more!) projects."
Perhaps this hack is a bit old fashioned, but there is surely an argument to be made that rather than allowing developer tools to expand like a helium balloon headed for space, getting to a solution that isn't quite so bloated might be made easier by having a rethink rather than adding yet more memory.
While Visual Studio can now chomp through more system resources, its ecosystem of extensions has not fared so well – Microsoft warned that updates would be required by vendors before those same extensions would turn up in Visual Studio 2022. This may not bode well for that one weird component that has long been abandoned but is still depended upon by a developer.
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The release was joined by updates to .NET 6 and ASP.NET Core in the form of Preview 5 as well as an updated preview of the .NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI). Microsoft also announced [12]a developer event at 3pm ET on 24 June, hot on the heels of its " [13]What's next for Windows " show.
After all, there is little point in having a shiny new operating system unless one can encourage developers to target code at it. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-2022-preview-1-now-available/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/15/windows_11_leak_microsoft/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/19/visual_studio_64_bit/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YM0XeoRHYOoid3NQS58u9AAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YM0XeoRHYOoid3NQS58u9AAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YM0XeoRHYOoid3NQS58u9AAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/17/microsoft_packages_404/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/14/microsoft_windows_10_end_support_date/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/09/june_patch_tuesday/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/08/notepad_plusplus_version_8/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YM0XeoRHYOoid3NQS58u9AAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://twitter.com/windowsdev/status/1405586191081213952
[13] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/event
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: GIT interface
So give them a few years and we'll see the 128-bit Visual Studio release? I'm working with a developer who's planning to store a binary rotation array e.g. [0,0,1] as three 64-bit numbers ... he tells me that it's essential to make the code easy. He's a very well paid git.
Far be it from us to wonder how much cruft might be lurking within a product that has its roots in the previous century.
The cruft in VS does not lurk. It leaps up, blows a raspberry in your face, bites your arse then leaves you to pick up the pieces. Maybe it will be more stable in 64-bits but I'm expecting it to be twice as bad. Something has been rotten in their project source for many years now and compiling for 64 bit is not going to make that suddenly go away.
As for paying attention to every bug - don't make me laugh. I've had a few fixed but most just result in requests for more information (seriously - 'The Error List keeps stealing focus during a build so I can't do anything else with the IDE'. Apparently they need more information.)
For some issues I've given them a recording and all the log files the bug reporting tool generates and still they ask for more information.
And it doesn't help that their support forum is a pile of poo. It's actually painful to report a bug these days and since most reports just end in a request for more information I've almost stopped bothering.
I'd be more impressed if...
...they just gave the Start page back.
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/start-page-please-give-it-back/434456
I mean, it didn't take me long to break it… importing my VS 2019 settings resulted in 9 warnings from it failing to import "Window Layouts" (annoyingly), "Live Share", "Import and Export Settings", and others, all because the "author of the category did not provide support for migration", before it returned error code 5450. Good start Microsoft
GIT interface
First impressions are good, but one change I've noticed that they are forcing through is the new dog poop GIT interface and have removed the old Team Explorer interface.