4 ms·

If it is a tier-1 language why isn't it supported in Visual Studio?

by petilon 24d ago

brunoborges 24d ago
Because it takes time. Even with coding agents, to add the capability. Then, there is the question on whether Rust developers who like to engage with Microsoft tools, would really consider Visual Studio as their IDE, instead of something like VS Code, VS Code Agent Mode, GitHub Copilot App, or GitHub Copilot CLI with simpler editors. I'd be curious to know whether Rust developers believe Visual Studio is the right place for Microsoft to invest Rust specific coding capabilities.
- not_a9 24d ago
  Visual Studio does have a really nice C++ debugger - one would imagine the C++ debugging capabilities should translate to Rust.
  - pjmlp 23d ago
    Hot code reloading, and incremental linking would be great, given the build times.
    - deleted 23d ago
      [deleted]
- pdpi 24d ago
  There's two ways to approach this — build tooling for existing Rust developers to get them to adopt the Microsoft stack, or build tooling for existing Microsoft stack developers to get them to adopt Rust. I'd argue that the former is less important than the latter, and my understanding is that Visual Studio is still the IDE for Windows-centric development, so for those MS-first developers, Rust missing from VS means Rust is poorly supported, end of story.
  - isolay 24d ago
    It would have to be the 2nd option. Who in their right mind would voluntarily choose Windows as their dev env? It will have to be those who are already there.
    - bluGill 24d ago
      Most people don't have a choice. Corporate IT has choosen what I run my machine on. I have used a native linux machine, but since my email is still on outlook, everybody uses teams, and all the non-code documents are on windows I end up having to have a windows machine. Linux in a VM under windows ends up being the easiest workflow (though I'm just starting to try WSL and so far it is looking good)
      - disgruntledphd2 24d ago
        > (though I'm just starting to try WSL and so far it is looking good) WSL is really nice, as is Windows Terminal. I particularly love its fonts (but that's probably just me).
        throwaway85825 24d ago
        Did they ever fix terminal performance?
        ocdtrekkie 24d ago
        I think just running cmd still uses much less memory but Terminal is much, much faster than it was.
        peterfirefly 23d ago
        Mostly, yes. They didn't really apologize for the abuse they sent towards Muratori but they did essentially wind up with the architecture he proposed.
      - philwelch 24d ago
- germandiago 24d ago
  > Even with coding agents Because of coding agents? :D
- jiggawatts 23d ago
  > Because it takes time. That's an excuse, not the reason. IntelliJ RustRover has been around for years. Similarly, VS Code has had Rust plugins written by the community in their spare time years ago.
cwbrandsma 24d ago
Because it is already supported in VS Code. I don't think this is a hot take, but I'm predicting Microsoft will gradually phase out Visual Studio in favor of VS Code.
- CodeCompost 24d ago
  Agreed but I think you need to pry Visual Studio from VB.NET developers' cold dead hands.
  - neutronicus 24d ago
    C++ developers, too. I suppose they're splitting out the real powerful stuff (Debugger, LSP) for VSCode's consumption.
- hn_submit 22d ago
  I hate VS Code (even though I use it regularly on Linux Mint) because it's basically "File Focused" not "Project Focused" or "Solution Focused." Yeah, I know that it can read Visual Studio Projects and Solutions but these are kludges. It's essentially a souped-up file editor.
afdbcreid 24d ago
It is, with extensions (using rust-analyzer of course). I don't know what's the status inside Microsoft.
eterm 24d ago
Given how long it took visual studio to get 64bit support, I wouldn't hold your breath! ( Edit: I should probably inform the layperson: It was Visual Studio 2022 )
phire 24d ago
It's only tier-1 for internal Microsoft use. And for all we know, it might be officially supported in their internal builds of Visual Studio.
sedatk 23d ago
Microsoft doesn’t use Visual Studio internally for many of its products such as Windows.
- nsoonhui 23d ago
  This is a shocking news to me. Can you elaborate with sources?
  - bztzt 23d ago
    in Windows, some teams/people use it others don't. Historically it hasn't worked well with some of the internal build/test/etc stuff, that's mostly changed in recent years.
  - miffy900 23d ago
    Windows is built using BuildXL, a very different build system from MSbuild used in Visual Studio: https://github.com/microsoft/BuildXL/blob/main/Documentation/Wiki/CoreConcepts.md https://github.com/microsoft/BuildXL/blob/main/Documentation... > BuildXL has also been proven to scale to large codebases (e.g., Windows/Office repositories) where builds can consist of millions of processes with terabytes of outputs BuildXL is also NOT compatible with VS and they have no plans to make it so. from the readme in the repo: https://github.com/microsoft/BuildXL https://github.com/microsoft/BuildXL > There are currently no plans to integrate it into Visual Studio.

If it is a tier-1 language why isn't it supported in Visual Studio?

by petilon 24d ago

If it is a tier-1 language why isn't it supported in Visual Studio?

Because it takes time. Even with coding agents, to add the capability. Then, there is the question on whether Rust developers who like to engage with Microsoft tools, would really consider Visual Studio as their IDE, instead of something like VS Code, VS Code Agent Mode, GitHub Copilot App, or GitHub Copilot CLI with simpler editors. I'd be curious to know whether Rust developers believe Visual Studio is the right place for Microsoft to invest Rust specific coding capabilities.

not_a9 24d ago
Visual Studio does have a really nice C++ debugger - one would imagine the C++ debugging capabilities should translate to Rust.
- pjmlp 23d ago
  Hot code reloading, and incremental linking would be great, given the build times.
  - deleted 23d ago
    [deleted]
pdpi 24d ago
There's two ways to approach this — build tooling for existing Rust developers to get them to adopt the Microsoft stack, or build tooling for existing Microsoft stack developers to get them to adopt Rust. I'd argue that the former is less important than the latter, and my understanding is that Visual Studio is still the IDE for Windows-centric development, so for those MS-first developers, Rust missing from VS means Rust is poorly supported, end of story.
- isolay 24d ago
  It would have to be the 2nd option. Who in their right mind would voluntarily choose Windows as their dev env? It will have to be those who are already there.
  - bluGill 24d ago
    Most people don't have a choice. Corporate IT has choosen what I run my machine on. I have used a native linux machine, but since my email is still on outlook, everybody uses teams, and all the non-code documents are on windows I end up having to have a windows machine. Linux in a VM under windows ends up being the easiest workflow (though I'm just starting to try WSL and so far it is looking good)
    - disgruntledphd2 24d ago
      > (though I'm just starting to try WSL and so far it is looking good) WSL is really nice, as is Windows Terminal. I particularly love its fonts (but that's probably just me).
      - throwaway85825 24d ago
        Did they ever fix terminal performance?
        ocdtrekkie 24d ago
        I think just running cmd still uses much less memory but Terminal is much, much faster than it was.
        peterfirefly 23d ago
        Mostly, yes. They didn't really apologize for the abuse they sent towards Muratori but they did essentially wind up with the architecture he proposed.
    - philwelch 24d ago
germandiago 24d ago
> Even with coding agents Because of coding agents? :D
jiggawatts 23d ago
> Because it takes time. That's an excuse, not the reason. IntelliJ RustRover has been around for years. Similarly, VS Code has had Rust plugins written by the community in their spare time years ago.

cwbrandsma 24d ago

Because it is already supported in VS Code. I don't think this is a hot take, but I'm predicting Microsoft will gradually phase out Visual Studio in favor of VS Code.

CodeCompost 24d ago
Agreed but I think you need to pry Visual Studio from VB.NET developers' cold dead hands.
- neutronicus 24d ago
  C++ developers, too. I suppose they're splitting out the real powerful stuff (Debugger, LSP) for VSCode's consumption.
hn_submit 22d ago
I hate VS Code (even though I use it regularly on Linux Mint) because it's basically "File Focused" not "Project Focused" or "Solution Focused." Yeah, I know that it can read Visual Studio Projects and Solutions but these are kludges. It's essentially a souped-up file editor.

afdbcreid 24d ago

It is, with extensions (using rust-analyzer of course). I don't know what's the status inside Microsoft.

eterm 24d ago

Given how long it took visual studio to get 64bit support, I wouldn't hold your breath! ( Edit: I should probably inform the layperson: It was Visual Studio 2022 )

phire 24d ago

It's only tier-1 for internal Microsoft use. And for all we know, it might be officially supported in their internal builds of Visual Studio.

sedatk 23d ago

Microsoft doesn’t use Visual Studio internally for many of its products such as Windows.

nsoonhui 23d ago
This is a shocking news to me. Can you elaborate with sources?
- bztzt 23d ago
  in Windows, some teams/people use it others don't. Historically it hasn't worked well with some of the internal build/test/etc stuff, that's mostly changed in recent years.
- miffy900 23d ago
  Windows is built using BuildXL, a very different build system from MSbuild used in Visual Studio: https://github.com/microsoft/BuildXL/blob/main/Documentation/Wiki/CoreConcepts.md https://github.com/microsoft/BuildXL/blob/main/Documentation... > BuildXL has also been proven to scale to large codebases (e.g., Windows/Office repositories) where builds can consist of millions of processes with terabytes of outputs BuildXL is also NOT compatible with VS and they have no plans to make it so. from the readme in the repo: https://github.com/microsoft/BuildXL https://github.com/microsoft/BuildXL > There are currently no plans to integrate it into Visual Studio.