Visual Studio 2022 17.5 arrives with C++ enhancements, AI coding suggestions

Visual Studio 2022 17.5, the latest version of Microsoft’s signature IDE, is now generally available. Highlights of the new version include capabilities for cross-platform C++ development, AI-powered coding suggestions, streamlined API development, and improved code search.

Also known simply as Visual Studio 17.5, the IDE can be downloaded from the Visual Studio website.

For C++ developers, the Linux console has been moved to the integrated terminal to make it easier to interact with a remote Linux machine. The integrated console window allows developers to offer input and view console input. When developers use a development container, they can now run them on remote machines. Developers can also open an interactive shell in the running container in the integrated terminal. The standard library has been extended to include C11 atomics in the MSVC (Microsoft C++) compiler. Initial support is for non-blocking atomic only. New CMake capabilities speed up build workflows.

Visual Studio 17.5 also offers AI-powered, intent-based code hinting, which provides in-editor inline hints based on recent changes. Machine learning algorithms are used to understand the structure of repeated edits made to the code and suggest changes.

The general release of Visual Studio 17.5 follows three preview releases, with the latest arriving on January 18. Elsewhere in Visual Studio 17.5:

• Significant improvements have been made to code search order and relevance while removing the limit on results without compromising speed. Code search now has a preview pane that supports results for C# and C++, allowing developers to see the context of the selected result.
• Added an accessibility checker to detect common accessibility issues for XAML-based desktop apps.
• ASP.NET Core apps can be deployed to Azure Container Apps in just a few steps. Also for .NET and cloud development, .http/.rest files have been added to ASP.NET Core projects, along with a built-in HTTP client. These files act as concise definitions for the API endpoints, providing a way to quickly iterate on API development.
• Improved the Razor syntax and C# experience, with support for code actions on Razor files.
• .NET incremental builds have been made faster by only building projects that have changed and bypassing projects with no changes.
• The debugger’s text display has been enhanced with additional tools and manipulation options.