Microsoft has unveiled Visual Studio 17.9 Preview 2, introducing enhancements to both C++ and .NET MAUI development environments. The release focuses on elevating the overall development experience for these key programming platforms.”

With the latest update, users gain the ability to effortlessly enclose a selected piece of code with bracket delimiters, be it ‘single quotes,’ “double quotes,” or (parentheses). This eliminates the need for manual input on both sides. To activate or deactivate this convenient feature, users can navigate to Tools > Options > Text Editor and toggle the ‘Automatically surround selections when typing quotes or brackets’ option.

In the realm of C++, fresh #include alternatives have been introduced, including ” #include diagnostics.” This feature offers a visual representation of the reference frequency for each #include directive within the code. Users can easily discern the reference count displayed alongside the directive and gain access to specific references by clicking on it. Furthermore, a simple double-click on references in the list facilitates seamless navigation to the corresponding locations.

The company added “#include diagnostics build time,” which provides information on the compilation time of #include directives after running Build Insights.

The functionality to execute unit tests in remote Linux scenarios has been activated. Users can now conduct tests for their C++ projects that target Linux on WSL or remote systems through the Test Explorer. Microsoft reports that the Azure Networking Team has already begun utilizing this capability.

In addition, Microsoft has incorporated .NET MAUI support into the Live Property Explorer. This tool, designed for inspecting XAML properties during debugging, empowers developers to dynamically view and modify properties while their code is running.