Rapid release means a lot of different things depending on who you ask and Microsoft has been trying to implement a rapid release schedule across their products with some success. One place Microsoft has had particular success with rapid release would be updates to Visual Studio Community Technology Previews (CTP). These are pre-released updates for Visual Studio which are available for developers to download and try out. Microsoft hopes to gain valuable feedback from developers about changes they are making within Visual Studio before officially rolling out Visual Studio 2015.
Visual Studio 2015 CTP 6.0 is the latest and greatest revision which Microsoft has implemented as much feedback from developers as possible. Version 5.0 was not well received by developers and Microsoft acknowledges changes needed to be made if they were going to keep their developers happy.
Lots of performance improvements make CTP 6.0 more usable and less frustrating. Changes like single-sign-in keeps developers from entering their credentials several times a day. This newest version also brings support for more projects across ecosystems such as improved Android Lollipop debug support, and better Android Emulators. Here is a list of the changes:
- Single Sign in
- ASP.NET Improvements
- Xamarin Integration Improvements
- Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova
- CodeLens Improvements
- Architecture Tools Adjustments
- NuGet UI gets face-lift
- XAML UI Debugging improved
- .NET Debugging improved
- Visual Studio Emulator for Android updated
These changes prove that Microsoft receives and implements feedback in a consistent quick releases. Microsoft improves their code on pre-released software fast so final software will be inline with customer expectations. Since Microsoft has a large amount of customers who have a vested interest in legacy applications, a fine line needs to be walked in order to improve while not changing too much. This release should make most developers happy and hopefully for Visual Studio 2015 when it’s officially released.
Further reading: Microsoft, Visual Studio
