Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs for Microsoft Windows, as well as web sites, web applications and web services. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Storeand Microsoft Silverlight. It can produce both native code and managed code.
Visual Studio includes a code editor supporting IntelliSense (the code completion component) as well as code refactoring. The integrated debugger works both as a source-level debugger and a machine-level debugger. Other built-in tools include a forms designer for building GUI applications, web designer, class designer, and database schema designer. It accepts plug-ins that enhance the functionality at almost every level—including adding support for source-control systems (likeSubversion) and adding new toolsets like editors and visual designers for domain-specific languages or toolsets for other aspects of the software development lifecycle (like the Team Foundation Server client: Team Explorer).
Visual Studio supports different programming languages and allows the code editor and debugger to support (to varying degrees) nearly any programming language, provided a language-specific service exists. Built-in languages include C,[5] C++and C++/CLI (via Visual C++), VB.NET (via Visual Basic .NET), C# (via Visual C#), and F# (as of Visual Studio 2010[6]). Support for other languages such as M, Python, and Ruby among others is available via language services installed separately. It also supports XML/XSLT, HTML/XHTML, JavaScript and CSS. Java (and J#) were supported in the past.
Microsoft provides "Community" editions of its Visual Studio at no cost. Commercial versions of Visual Studio along with select past versions are available for free to students via Microsoft's DreamSpark program.[7]
Microsoft provides a preview of Visual Studio Code for free with a proprietary license.[8] It is a source code and text editor, along with other features, for Linux, OS X, and Windows
Prior to Visual Studio Version 4.0, there were Visual Basic 3, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro and Visual SourceSafe as separate products.
| Product name | Codename | Version number | cl.exe version | Supported .NET Framework versions | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio 4.0 | N/A | 4.0 | N/A | N/A | April 1995 |
| Visual Studio 97 | Boston | 5.0 | N/A | N/A | February 1997 |
| Visual Studio 6.0 | Aspen | 6.0 | 12.00 | N/A | June 1998 |
| Visual Studio .NET (2002) | Rainier | 7.0 | 13.00 | 1.0 | February 13, 2002 |
| Visual Studio .NET 2003 | Everett | 7.1 | 13.10 | 1.1 | April 24, 2003 |
| Visual Studio 2005 | Whidbey | 8.0 | 14.00 | 2.0, 3.0 | November 7, 2005 |
| Visual Studio 2008 | Orcas | 9.0 | 15.00 | 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 | November 19, 2007 |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Dev10/Rosario | 10.0 | 16.00 | 2.0 – 4.0 | April 12, 2010 |
| Visual Studio 2012 | Dev11 | 11.0 | 17.00 | 2.0 – 4.5.2 | September 12, 2012 |
| Visual Studio 2013 | Dev12 | 12.0 | 18.00 | 2.0 – 4.5.2 | October 17, 2013 |
| Visual Studio 2015 | Dev14 | 14.0 | 19.00 | 2.0 – 4.6 | July 20, 2015 |
