Visual Studio 2019 upgrade brings C++ 20 support

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Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2019 v16.10, an update to the flagship IDE that emphasises C++ 20 support, and a preview of Visual Studio 2019 16.11, a point release that centres on a new Hot Reload capability. Both releases were published on May 25.

Visual Studio 2019 16.10 comes with features compliant with C++ 20, including calendars, time zones, and the

text formatting facility. Microsoft said its compiler and standard library are now feature-complete for C++ 20.

Developers who want to use C++ 20-style coroutines but are targeting C++ 11 or C++ 14 can use the

/await:strict

switch to get the behaviour desired. And those using the CMake build tool will be able to use CMakePresets to specify configurations instead of CMakeSettings.json.

Other new features in Visual Studio 2019 16.10:

For Git, the status bar has a new branch picker to filter local and remote branches and perform common actions from the right-click context menu. Also, some options have been added to Git -> Settings to manage opening and switching of repositories.

For Docker containers, developers now can run any combination of services defined in compose files. There are also improvements to container and image management in the Containers window.

To improve productivity, a Removed Unused References command has been added to clean up unused project references and NuGet packages. There also is additional IntelliSense completion for Enum values when a type is known even if the Enum value is not entered. This option has been expanded to include completion for casts, indexers, and operators. Also for productivity, there is now a visual representation for navigating and inspecting the inheritance chain. There also are .NET productivity improvements for WinForms and XAML.

The launch page for the Performance Profiler has added links to help guide developers to online documentation. And the .NET Object Allocation tool in the Performance Profiler is the first tool transitioned to a new analysis engine that is faster and has more features.

With Visual Studio 2019 16.11 Preview 1, the first release of a new Hot Reload user experience is provided for editing code files such as WPF, Windows Forms, ASP.NET Core, and Console. With Hot Reload, developers can modify managed source code while the app is running, with no need to pause execution or use a breakpoint.

The 16.11 preview also supports .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI), a framework for writing cross-platform applications for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac that is due to be generally available in November. .NET 6 Preview 4 ships with .NET MAUI features.

Visual Studio 2019 16.10 can be downloaded here. Visual Studio 2019 16.11 Preview 1 can be downloaded here. Microsoft this summer also plans to preview Visual Studio 2022, the next major release of the IDE.

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Visual Studio 2019 upgrade brings C++ 20 support