Visual Studio Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 Release Notes

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Important

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac (version 8 and higher) is not supported on Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or lower. If you have Visual Studio 2017 for Mac (version 7), you will not be shown an update to Visual Studio 2019 for Mac. Installation will also be blocked. To resolve this issue, update to macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or higher

What's New in Visual Studio 2019 for Mac

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 Releases

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac Blog

The Visual Studio 2019 for Mac Blog is the official source of product insight from the Visual Studio Engineering Team. You can find in-depth information about the Visual Studio 2019 for Mac releases in the following posts:

Release Highlights

  • This release contains a preview of the next generation text editor for Visual Studio for Mac.
  • We've introduced a new getting started experience.
  • We've added support for easily running multiple instances of the IDE.
  • We've added a new way to set multiple startup projects, making it easier to create a solution Run Configuration that will launch multiple projects when debugging.
  • Visual Studio for Mac can now detect that updates to Azure Functions templates are available, and will provide you with a dialog to update them.
  • We've improved the debugging experience for Unity projects by sharing the debugger used by Visual Studio Tools for Unity on Windows.
  • We have added support for Microsoft Account authentication with Git and Azure DevOps/Team Foundation Server.
  • We've moved from having three channels: Alpha, Beta, Stable to just Preview and Stable. You can access updates from the Visual Studio > Check for Updates… menu item.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.9.5)

released May 30, 2019

We fixed the following issues in this release:

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.8.2)

released May 23, 2019

This release fixes an issue where stepping during debugging with Unity does not work.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.7.3)

released May 21, 2019

This release updates the Xamarin.Forms Shell template to work with the latest version of Shell.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.6.4)

released May 14, 2019

This release addresses an issue that can lead to a crash when rendering breakpoints in the editor.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.5.9)

released April 29, 2019

We fixed the following issues in this release:

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.4.0)

released April 18, 2019

We fixed the following issues in this release:

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.3.14)

released April 15, 2019

We fixed the following issues in this release:

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.2.23)

released April 9, 2019

This release adds support for Xcode 10.2.

We fixed the following issues in this release:

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.1.1)

released April 4, 2019

  • We fixed an issue where the IDE would crash if the Start Window was closed while a project was being created.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0 (8.0.0.3001)

released April 2, 2019

Install

  • We've given the Visual Studio for Mac Installer a fresh look with updated icons, splash screens, and carousel screens with useful content for all developers.
  • We added support for a minimum version of macOS required for Visual Studio for Mac (10.12). If you're not on macOS 10.12 of newer the installer now prompts you to upgrade your version of macOS.
  • We changed our installer defaults to a smaller and smarter install. Instead of selecting everything by default, we select the IDE and .NET Core for all users, and only select iOS or Android if any version of Xcode or Android SDK is detected on your machine.
  • If you are developing Xamarin.iOS or Xamarin.Mac apps, we now prompt you to update to the recommended version of Xcode, if you don't already have it installed.
  • We removed the NDK from the Android SDK download.
  • We made many improvements to the Android permissions dialog, including improving the UI and allowing the user to uncheck Xamarin.Android.

Start Window

With this release, we've introduced a brand new way of interacting with your projects and getting you to where you need to go in the IDE.

If you're a new Visual Studio for Mac user, you'll be prompted to log in when you first open the IDE. By logging in you can activate your Professional or Enterprise account or connect to Azure. If you're not ready to sign in, you can press the Skip button and sign in through the Visual Studio > Sign In menu item.

Sign-in Dialog
New Sign in dialog

You'll then be greeted with the new start window. This window has three main sections, allowing you to create or open new and existing projects:

New Start Window
New Start window
  • Recent Projects: Here you can find a list of your 25 most recent projects. You can optionally "pin" your most frequently used project, if you'd prefer to keep them at the top of the list. The search box can be used to filter through all recent projects in the list.
  • Open: You can open any .csproj, .fsproj, .sln or any other supported file from your local directory using this button.
  • New: You can select from the many pre-populated templates to help you get started with a new project. The new project dialog will take you through all the necessary configurations to help you get up and running.

New Code Editor

Visual Studio for Mac 2019 contains a preview of the next generation text editor for Visual Studio for Mac! This new text editor shares the same core components with Visual Studio Windows, with an entirely new, native user interface.

New Editor
New editor features in Visual Studio for Mac

At this time, the new editor supports C# files only. Additional language support will be added in future releases.

The new Visual Studio for Mac editor brings the following features:

  • Native macOS (Cocoa-based) user interface (tooltips, editor surface, margin adornments, text rendering, IntelliSense)
  • Support for native text inputs
  • RTL/BiDi language support
  • Common Visual Studio Platform core
  • Roslyn 3
  • Multi-caret support
  • Word Wrap
  • Update IntelliSense UI
  • Improved Find/Replace

Exceptions now use the Cocoa UI to display exception messages, including exception notification and details:

New Exceptions in Visual Studio for Mac
New exceptions in Visual Studio for Mac

Context Menu Navigation is enabled. You can now use context menu based navigation commands like "Go to Declaration" and "Go To Implementation". We have also enabled "Remove and Sort Usings".

How to enable or disable the editor

As the new editor is a preview feature within Visual Studio for Mac 2019, you have to opt-in to use the feature. Go to the Visual Studio > Preferences… > Text Editor > General section and check the Open C# files in the New Editor checkbox. Once this option is checked, any newly opened C# files will be using the new editor. You will know the new editor is enabled when the "New Editor Preview" button appears in the bottom-right of the editing window.

To disable the new editor, either click the New Editor Preview button in the bottom right of the editor pane and select Disable the New Editor Preview or navigate to the Visual Studio > Preferences… > Text Editor > General section and un-check the Open C# files in the New Editor checkbox.

How to Report a Problem with the editor

To report a problem in the new editor, either click the "New Editor Preview" button in the bottom right of the editor pane and select "Report a Problem". You can also go directly to Developer Community.

Support for multiple instances

Visual Studio for Mac now supports opening multiple instances of the IDE from the dock. Visual Studio for Mac has always had support for opening multiple solutions in one window but we’ve heard a lot of requests to support multiple windows for the IDE. To open a new instance, right-click on the icon in the dock and select New Instance:

Opening a new instance graphic
Opening a new instance of Visual Studio for Mac

Set Startup projects

A new command, Set Startup Projects, is available to make it easier to create a solution Run Configuration that will launch multiple projects when debugging. For information on setting multiple startup projects, see the documentation.

Set startup projects dialog
Set Startup Projects dialog

Debugging improvements for Unity

In this release we've replaced the debugger that's used for Unity projects with the debugger from Visual Studio Tools for Unity on Windows. This change has better compatibility with older versions of Unity, improvements for debugging unsafe C# code, and provides better reliability.

Xamarin Improvements

Xamarin developers should find a ton of improvements in this release. New highlights include:

Xamarin.Android

We know that developers run through the build-deploy-debug cycle countless times a day, and we're consistently working towards shortening the inner development loop even more. In this release, we've made huge gains by optimizing incremental builds and deployments.

Using the SmartHotel360 app for testing, incremental build times have been trimmed by up to 29%, and deployment times are up to twice as fast. A full report of build performance profiling and methodology is available on the Xamarin.Android wiki, but here’s a quick overview:

Step Visual Studio 2017 Visual Studio 2019 Delta
First build 01:04.20 00:50.13 -21.95%
Incremental Build (XAML Change) 00:10.62 00:07.47 -29.66%
Deploy (XAML Change) 00:09.03 00:04.44 -50.83%

Our mission to continually increase build reliability continues and one area we've made optimizations to is Android resource updates. By minimizing scenarios where resource updates would occur at build time, there should be a significant reduction of build issues stemming from conflicts in this area.

In a step towards parity with the Android in Visual Studio on Windows experience, the deployment process has been further streamlined and the Android emulator will now launch when starting a build.

Xamarin.Forms

The brand-new template for Xamarin Forms Shell projects is now available, and for a more uniform experience across IDEs, this release also includes new file templates previously available only in Visual Studio on Windows. You can use the new XAML files today by navigating to File > New File… > Forms in the Visual Studio 2019 for Mac menu. The new file items are:

  • Forms ListViewPage XAML
  • Forms MasterDetailPage XAML
  • Forms TabbedPage XAML
  • Forms ViewCell XAML

And to help make productivity a touch better, Intellisense in Xamarin.Forms XAML files for FontFamily support is now available:

New Xamarin.Forms XAML files
New Xamarin.Forms XAML files

Android Designer

We now have support for Android Pie (9.0)! Additionally, we made enhancements to increase Android Designer start up time and improved scrolling widget support.

This release also ships support for adding “standard” XML namespaces to documents when a corresponding attribute is set, as well as support for escape sequences like '@', '?' and Unicode escape sequences.

iOS Designer

We’ve added support for PDF as an image format, and improved support for color spaces and color precision. Additionally, you can now select named colors from asset catalogs as the value for color properties.

We now have support for custom controls that need to load native dynamic libraries or frameworks (note that static libraries are not supported). Additionally, custom properties of type CGSize will now appear in the property panel for custom controls

Azure Functions improvements

We have updated Azure Functions runtime and templates (CLI) in this release. In addition, Visual Studio for Mac will offer you the ability to update your function templates if new templates are available when creating a new Functions project. To update Azure Functions templates, select the update button next to the text "Updated templates are available":

Update Azure Fucntions templates
Update Azure Functions templates and CLI

Visual Studio for Mac also supports Azure Functions CLI installed via HomeBrew and will choose the instance with the highest discovered version.

Issues Fixed

The following issues have also been fixed in this release.

Code Editor

Projects

IDE

  • We fixed an issue where the wrong text color is used in an unfocused but selected row in the structured build output window.
  • We fixed an issue where creating a new folder in the Solution Explorer does not let you name the folder at the same time.
  • Start Debugging after Start without Debugging results in an exception for ASP.Net projects.
  • The Run Item command on the Solution Explorer has been renamed to Run Project.
  • Visual Studio for Mac will now use HttpClient and the native Mac networking API when making web requests for nearly all its requests. Some areas have not yet been updated to use HttpClient and the Mac networking API available through Xamarin.Mac's NSUrlSession. The Mac's networking API provides its own built in support for proxies. Visual Studio for Mac can also be configured to use Mono's networking API as an alternative. Some areas are not yet supported such as the sign in dialog, and will continue to use Mono's networking API.
  • We fixed an issue where not seeing Code Formatting policies in the UI.
  • We fixed an issue where VisualStudio for Mac cannot change projects from C# -> F# or vice versa.
  • We fixed an issue where it was not possible to delete entries from Toolbox Clipboard Ring for XAML files.
  • We fixed an issue where focusing out/into Visual Studio changes the default focused element on the UI.
  • We fixed an issue where navigation history removes files from history.
  • We updated items in the help menu.
  • We fixed an issue where you cannot set focus in 2 column edit mode with 2 solutions open.
  • We updated the "About" dialog window title to be more human readable.
  • We fixed an issue where some windows appear positioned incorrectly.
  • We fixed an issue where Adding Files modal progress window obscures copy/move modal.

.NET Core

ASP.NET Core

  • We fixed an issue where templates that come with an API backend did not have a run configuration that launches both projects.
  • We fixed an issue where Navigate -> Implementing Members in ASP.NET Core project doesn't work.
  • We fixed an issue where Convert Solution Format doesn't do anything for a solution with an ASP.NET Core web app.

NuGet

Web Tools

  • We fixed an issue where .ts files are not working in VSMac.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac 2019 cannot open Docker projects.
  • We fixed an issue where JavaScript quick info tooltip is showing up outside the editor window.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac crashes on copy & paste in launchSettings.json.

Xamarin

  • We have removed the Live Player from Visual Studio for Mac.
  • We fixed an issue where the Help -> Release Notes linked to the wrong place.

Designers

Android Designer

Xamarin.Forms

Xamarin.iOS

Xamarin.Android

  • We have removed support for listing and showing Xamarin Android Player emulators.
  • We fixed an issue where new Android apps have uppercase letters in the package name.
  • We fixed an issue where the casing of strings.xml was inconsistent for new projects.
  • We fixed an issue where opening the Report A Problem dialog also displays "Install JDK" dialog.
  • We fixed an issue where new projects do not have the min and target API set correctly.
  • We fixed an issue where the Android ‘WebView App’ template does not have a ‘Modern Development’ option in project creation dialog.
  • We fixed an issue where the Android Emulator Launch in Visual Studio for Mac is extremely slow.
  • We fixed an issue where running the Android app does not start with "HAXM" on Visual Studio for Mac 2019.
  • We now start the Android emulator when starting to build the project.
  • Users can now choose between AAPT and AAPT2 in Xamarin.Android project settings.
  • We fixed an issue where deploying to device hangs at 100%.
  • We fixed an issue where it was not possible to cancel starting an Android emulator, and having to force quit Visual Studio for Mac if the image was broken.
  • We fixed an issue where, if there were multiple Android .csproj files for a project (using different Android Manifests with differing package names), would produce incorrect or invalid archive and would fail to publish.
  • We fixed an issue where the JDK notification was shown on the welcome page, even for non-Android projects.
  • We fixed an issue where the Android resource update could occur at the same time as a build which could then cause build issues.

Xamarin.Mac

  • We fixed an issue where it is not possible to change the target framework version for Xamarin.Mac full on re-opening project options.
  • We fixed an issue where .xib templates seem to need customObjectInstantitationMethod="direct" added.
  • We fixed an issue where macOS 10.13 doesn't show up as a deployment target.
  • We fixed an issue where the default platform of macOS projects is x86, but should be AnyCPU.

Test Tools

Accessibility

  • We fixed a number of accessibility issues in this release, including several VoiceOver issues in the Debugger and in creating iOS developer certificates, and Keyboard issues in the Android SDK Manager.

Source Control

We have added support for Microsoft Account authentication with Git and Azure DevOps/Team Foundation Server, which previously would continually prompt for credentials without successfully connecting.

Git

Debugger

Azure Tools

  • Azure functions is now two words in the New Project Dialog.

Profiler

  • We fixed an issue where a NullReferenceException is thrown after deleting VSMac preferences.

Installer

  • We fixed an issue where the Android Permissions were causing the application to hang.
  • We improved the error reporting for individual components and will not show the error page right away.
  • We fixed bug where symlinks were breaking when an older Visual Studio for Mac version was copied for backup.
  • We fixed a bug where non-retina/low-res icons are being displayed everywhere.

Updater

  • We fixed an issue where checking for updates can result in multiple prompts to sign in.
  • We fixed an issue where updating without restarting can cause strange MSBuild errors.

Other

Feedback and Suggestions

We would love to hear from you! You can report a problem through the Report a Problem option in Visual Studio for Mac IDE. You can track your feedback, including suggestions, in the Developer Community portal.

Known Issues

The following is a list of all existing known issues in Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.0:

  • Visual Studio for Mac prompts for microphone access when starting an Android emulator – Upstream.
  • Building a .NET Core or ASP.NET Core 2.2 application inside Visual Studio for Mac will fail if you have the .NET Core 3 Preview 3 or higher SDKs installed on the machine.
  • Publishing Android apps to Google Play will require re-registration of the Google Play API credentials. In Preferences | Publishing, remove existing accounts and re-register them.
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