Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) created by Microsoft. Visual Studio is a comprehensive development environment widely used, and it is the main IDE for application development on the Windows operating system.
Additionally, Visual Studio is the main tool for .NET application development, both desktop and web. Generally, the preferred language is C#.
However, Visual Studio also supports many other languages and file formats, including F#, Visual Basic, C++, Python, HTML + CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript.
It should not be confused with Visual Studio Code, which is a lightweight code editor also developed by Microsoft. More information in this entry
Editions of Visual Studio
Visual Studio is available in different editions, each with specific features and functionalities.
Community
The Community edition of Visual Studio is a free and complete version aimed at individual developers and small teams.
If you want to get started with C# and .NET, you can install this version at home without any issues. It is completely free for personal and Open Source projects.
Professional and Enterprise
The Professional and Enterprise versions are paid versions that must be used for commercial projects and businesses.
The Professional edition is designed for development teams and professional developers. It offers all the features of the Community edition and some (few) additional functions.
The Enterprise edition of Visual Studio is the most complete and expensive version. It is aimed at large organizations and more complex projects.
Installing Visual Studio Community
The Community edition of Visual Studio is available for free for personal use. To install it, we go to the official Visual Studio website at https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/.
Here, we download the Community version. An installer will be downloaded that we will launch.
The Visual Studio installation wizard will appear. Select the components you want to install and customize the options according to your preferences.
We click Install, and patiently wait for it to install. It may take a while, depending on the options we have chosen, so be patient. ⌛
Once the installation is complete, you can start Visual Studio Community from the start menu or the desktop.
Main Features of Visual Studio
Code Editing
Visual Studio is a very powerful IDE and, as such, incorporates a whole series of functionalities aimed at making our lives easier when writing and editing code.
This includes syntax highlighting, intelligent auto-completion (IntelliSense), and error highlighting. While you type, Visual Studio offers contextual suggestions to automatically complete the code.
It also offers refactoring operations, which allow you to reorganize and improve the structure of the code without changing its behavior. For example, it includes actions such as renaming variables, extracting methods, moving classes, among others.
Advanced Debugging
Visual Studio provides a powerful debugger that allows you to detect and solve errors in the code efficiently. It allows you to set breakpoints, inspect variables, follow the execution flow, and perform step-by-step testing to identify and correct problems in the code.
Extension and Package Management
Visual Studio supports a wide range of extensions and plugins that can be installed to add new functionalities and support for different technologies and frameworks.
Additionally, with the management of extensions and NuGet packages, we can easily add additional functionalities or libraries from our own or third parties to our projects.
Automated Deployment and Testing
Visual Studio offers tools for the automated deployment of applications and the execution of automated tests. It allows you to generate installation packages, publish applications to cloud services, and perform unit and integration tests to ensure software quality.
Integration with Version Control Systems
Visual Studio integrates with version control systems, such as Git, allowing us to track changes, merge branches, resolve conflicts, and collaborate efficiently in teams.