Visual Studio For Mac Looks Different

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Visual Studio for Mac contains a whole suite of features to make debugging easy. This article looks at the different data visualizations that can be viewed when inspecting objects in the debugger. Debugging is a common, and necessary, part of programming. Visual Studio for Mac contains a whole suite of features to make debugging easy.

Visual Studio for Mac consists of a set of modules called Extension Packages. You can use Extension Packages to introduce new functionality to Visual Studio for Mac, such as support for an additional language or a new Project template.

Extension packages build from the extension points of other extension packages. Extension points are placeholders for areas that can be expanded upon, such as a menu or the list of IDE Commands. An extension package can build from an extension point by registering a node of structured data called an extension, such as a new menu item or a new Command. Each extension point accepts certain types of extensions, such as a Command, Pad, or FileTemplate. A module that contains extension points is called an add-in host, as it can be extended by other extension packages.

I want to build a.NET Core Web API on my Mac using Visual Studio for Mac Preview. When installing, I have options to install components. I don't believe I will need neither of them since I won't be needing Camarim or Intel HAXM, but I don't have that option. Visual Studio for Mac will now format your code following the conventions specified in the.editorconfig file. This will allow you to set your coding style, preferences, and warnings for your project; making it simpler for code that you contribute to other projects to follow the practices of those projects.

To customize Visual Studio for Mac, you can create an extension package that builds from extension points contained in add-in hosts within pre-existing libraries in Visual Studio for Mac, as illustrated by the following diagram:

Visual studio for mac free

Go to Preferences > User Settings. (Alternatively, Ctrl +, / Cmd +, on macOS) Then you can type inside the JSON object any settings you want to override. User settings are per user. You can also configure workspace settings, which are for the project that you are currently working on. Nov 25, 2018  I have 2 Mac Laptops running the same version of Mojave, same version of PowerPoint (16.19 on a 365 subscription). Yet.each laptops' PowerPoint looks different. The ribbon icons are different for the same items and have a black outline/flat appearance on one (see below).

In order for an extension package to build from Visual Studio for Mac, it must have extensions that build from pre-existing extension points within the Visual Studio for Mac IDE. When an extension package relies on an extension point defined in an add-in host, it is said to have a dependency on that extension package.

The benefit of this modular design is that Visual Studio for Mac is extensible -- there are many extension points that can be built upon with custom extension packages. Examples of current extension packages include support for C# and F#, debugger tools, and Project templates.

Note

If you have an Add-in Maker project that was created before Add-in Maker 1.2, you need to migrate your project as outlined in the steps here.

This section looks at the different files generated by the Add-in Maker and the data a command extension requires.

Attribute files

Extension packages store metadata about their name, version, dependencies, and other information in C# attributes. The Add-in Maker creates two files, AddinInfo.cs and AssemblyInfo.cs to store and organize this information. Extension packages must have a unique ID and namespace specified in their Addin attribute:

Extension packages must also declare dependencies on the extension packages that own the extension points they plug into, which are automatically referenced at build time.

Furthermore, additional references can be added via the Add-in reference node in the solution pad for the project, as depicted by the following image:

They also have their corresponding assembly:AddinDependency attributes added at build time. Once the metadata and dependency declarations are in place, you can focus on the essential building blocks of the extension package.

Visual Studio For Mac Looks Different From Every Angle

Extensions and extension points

An extension point is a placeholder that defines a data structure (a type), while an extension defines data that conforms to a structure specified by a specific extension point. Extension points specify what type of extension they can accept in their declaration. Extensions are declared using type names or extension paths. See the Extension Point reference for a more in-depth explanation on how to create the extension point that you need.

The extension/extension point architecture keeps the development of Visual Studio for Mac fast and modular.

Command Extensions

Command Extensions are extensions that point to methods that are called every time it is executed.

Command Extensions are defined by adding entries to the /MonoDevelop/Ide/Commands extension point. We defined our extension in Manifest.addin.xml with the following code:

The extension node contains a path attribute that specifies the extension point that it is plugging into, in this case /MonoDevelop/Ide/Commands/Edit. Additionally, it acts as a parent node to the Command. The Command node has the following attributes:

  • id - Specifies the identifier for this Command. Command Identifiers must be declared as enumeration members, and are used to connect Commands to CommandItems.
  • _label - The text to be shown in menus.
  • _description - The text to be shown as a tooltip for toolbar buttons.
  • defaultHandler - Specifies the CommandHandler class that powers the Command

A CommandItem extension that plugs into the /MonoDevelop/Ide/MainMenu/Edit extension point is demonstrated in the following code snippet:

A CommandItem places a Command specified in its id attribute into a menu. This CommandItem is extending the /MonoDevelop/Ide/MainMenu/Edit extension point, which makes the Command's label appear in the Edit Menu. Note that the ID in the CommandItem corresponds to the ID of the Command node, InsertDate. If you remove the CommandItem, the Insert Date option would disappear from the Edit Menu.

Command Handlers

The InsertDateHandler is an extension of the CommandHandler class. It overrides two methods, Update and Run. The Update method is queried whenever a Command is shown in a menu or executed via key bindings. By changing the info object, you can disable the Command or make it invisible, populate array commands, and more. This Update method disables the command if it can't find an active Document with a TextEditor to insert text into:

You only need to override the Update method when you have special logic for enabling or hiding the Command. The Run method executes whenever a user executes a Command, which in this case occurs when a user selects the Command from the Edit Menu. This method inserts the date and time at the caret in the text editor:

Declare the Command type as an enumeration member within DateInserterCommands:

The Command and CommandItem are now tied together - the CommandItem calls the Command when the CommandItem is selected from the Edit Menu.

IDE APIs

For information on the scope of areas that are available for development, see the Extension Tree Reference and the API Overview. When building advanced extension packages, also refer to Developer Articles. Below is a partial list of areas for customization:

  • Pads
  • Key Binding Schemes
  • Policies
  • Code formatters
  • Project file formats
  • Preferences panels
  • Options Panels
  • Debugger Protocols
  • Debugger visualizers
  • Workspace layouts
  • Solution pad tree nodes
  • Source editor margins
  • Unit test engines
  • Code generators
  • Code snippets
  • Target frameworks
  • Target runtime
  • VCS back-ends
  • Refactoring
  • Execution handlers
  • Syntax highlighting

Extending The New Editor

Visual Studio for Mac introduces a new native Cocoa text editor UI built on top of the same editor layers from Visual Studio on Windows.

One of the many benefits of sharing the editor between Visual Studio and Visual Studio for Mac is that code targeting the Visual Studio editor can be adapted to run on Visual Studio for Mac.

Note

The new editor supports only C# files at this time. Other languages and file formats will open in the legacy editor. The legacy editor does however implement some of the Visual Studio Editor APIs described below.

Visual Studio Editor Overview

Before touching on extension details specific to Visual Studio for Mac, it is helpful to understand more about the shared editor itself. Below are a few resources that may deepen this understanding:

With those resources in hand, the primary concepts that you need to be familiar with are an ITextBuffer and an ITextView:

  • An ITextBuffer is an in-memory representation of text that can be changed over time. The CurrentSnapshot property on ITextBuffer returns an immutable representation of the current contents of the buffer, an instance of ITextSnapshot. When an edit is made on the buffer, the CurrentSnapshot property is updated to the latest version. Analyzers can inspect the text snapshot on any thread and its contents is guaranteed to never change.

  • An ITextView is the UI representation of how ITextBuffer is rendered on screen in the editor control. It has a reference to its text buffer, as well as Caret, Selection, and other UI-related concepts.

For a given MonoDevelop.Ide.Gui.Document, you can retrieve the associated underlying ITextBuffer and ITextView via Document.GetContent<ITextBuffer>() and Document.GetContent<ITextView>() respectively.

Additional Information

Note

We are currently working on improving the extensibility scenarios for Visual Studio for Mac. If you are creating extensions and need additional help or information, or would like to provide feedback, please fill in the Visual Studio for Mac Extension Authoring form.

See also

Installation

  1. Download Visual Studio Code for macOS.
  2. Double-click on the downloaded archive to expand the contents.
  3. Drag Visual Studio Code.app to the Applications folder, making it available in the Launchpad.
  4. Add VS Code to your Dock by right-clicking on the icon to bring up the context menu and choosing Options, Keep in Dock.

Launching from the command line

You can also run VS Code from the terminal by typing 'code' after adding it to the path:

  • Launch VS Code.
  • Open the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)) and type 'shell command' to find the Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH command.
  • Restart the terminal for the new $PATH value to take effect. You'll be able to type 'code .' in any folder to start editing files in that folder.

Note: If you still have the old code alias in your .bash_profile (or equivalent) from an early VS Code version, remove it and replace it by executing the Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH command.

To manually add VS Code to your path, you can run the following commands:

Start a new terminal to pick up your .bash_profile changes.

Note: The leading slash is required to prevent $PATH from expanding during the concatenation. Remove the leading slash if you want to run the export command directly in a terminal.

Touch Bar support

Out of the box VS Code adds actions to navigate in editor history as well as the full Debug tool bar to control the debugger on your Touch Bar:

Visual Studio For Mac Professional

Mojave privacy protections

After upgrading to macOS Mojave version, you may see dialogs saying 'Visual Studio Code would like to access your {calendar/contacts/photos}.' This is due to the new privacy protections in Mojave and is not specific to VS Code. The same dialogs may be displayed when running other applications as well. The dialog is shown once for each type of personal data and it is fine to choose Don't Allow since VS Code does not need access to those folders. You can read a more detailed explanation in this blog post.

Updates

VS Code ships monthly releases and supports auto-update when a new release is available. If you're prompted by VS Code, accept the newest update and it will get installed (you won't need to do anything else to get the latest bits).

Note: You can disable auto-update if you prefer to update VS Code on your own schedule.

Preferences menu

You can configure VS Code through settings, color themes, and custom keybindings and you will often see mention of the File > Preferences menu group. On a macOS, the Preferences menu group is under Code, not File.

Next steps

Once you have installed VS Code, these topics will help you learn more about VS Code:

  • Additional Components - Learn how to install Git, Node.js, TypeScript, and tools like Yeoman.
  • User Interface - A quick orientation around VS Code.
  • User/Workspace Settings - Learn how to configure VS Code to your preferences settings.
Mac

Common questions

Visual studio for mac looks different

Visual Studio For Mac Wikipedia

Why do I see 'Visual Studio Code would like access to your calendar.'

Install Visual Studio For Mac

If you are running macOS Mojave version, you may see dialogs saying 'Visual Studio Code would like to access your {calendar/contacts/photos}.' This is due to the new privacy protections in Mojave discussed above. It is fine to choose Don't Allow since VS Code does not need access to those folders.