Back in Nov 2012, in Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 a new feature named Code Map was introduced in Ultimate edition. The feature allowed visualization of relationships in code. Here’s a short video that will help you understand the concept behind Code Map.
Beginning Visual Studio 2012 Update 2, Microsoft has extended Code Map with debugging support allowing us to visualize code relationship as you step through the code in debugging session. Consider the Windows Phone code below where on a button click event a call is made to a web service to request population for Pakistan. Once the result is obtained a confirmation message is shown to the user. However during testing we identified that the confirmation message is shown before the response is actually retrieved so we’ll debug the code with Code Map to evaluate the issue.
Code Map: How To?
To explore Code Map debugging feature, set the breakpoint on Button click handler and as soon as the breakpoint is hit, bring forth the code map window by either of following,
– By selecting Code Map button from toolbar
– Choosing Show Call Stack on Code Map from Debug menu
I’m excited to announce the Release Candidate of Visual Studio 2013, .NET Framework 4.5.1 and Team Foundation Server 2013! The release is available for download now on the Visual Studio product website and is a “go-live” release. Starting today, developers can also download Windows 8.1 RTM via their MSDN and TechNet subscriptions.
The RC release is the next big step toward the release of Visual Studio 2013. Today I am also excited to announce that Visual Studio 2013 will RTM at Windows 8.1 GA and the Visual Studio 2013 Virtual Launch will be held on November 13th, 2013! Available online around the world, more details can be found on the virtual launch event on the events page.
Trying out the Bits
The Visual Studio 2013 RC can be installed on top of the Visual Studio 2013 Preview or side-by-side with Visual Studio 2012. Please note that Windows Store app development with Visual Studio 2013 RC requires Windows 8.1 RTM, which is available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, starting today. (Visual Studio 2013 RC does not support Windows 8.1 Preview or Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview.) For Windows Azure developers, the VS 2013 RC supports the same July Azure SDK (version 2.1) as the VS 2013 Preview.
Visual Studio 2013 contains great new features for developers across all Visual Studio languages and platforms. I talked about many of the new features in my post on the Visual Studio 2013 Preview in June. Features like synchronized settings, peek definition in the editor, UI responsiveness tools for XAML and HTML apps, async debugging, and Azure Mobile Services integration provide enhancements across a wide range of developer scenarios.
Today, I’ll take a look at a few of the features that are new to the Visual Studio 2013 RC release. For even more on Visual Studio 2013 RC, check out the “What’s New” page.
XAML Editor
One of my favorite improvements in Visual Studio 2013 RC is the enhancements to the XAML editor. Developers are authoring XAML for many of our platforms, from WPF to Silverlight to Windows Phone to Windows Store.
In the RC, we’ve added IntelliSense for Data Binding to the XAML editor. This works with a DataContext defined in the markup, or with a design-time DataContext for cases where the context is provided in code-behind.
We’ve also added support for Go To Definition for Resources, Bindings, Properties and XAML Elements. For example, if you Go To Definition on a Resource: