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Feb 11, 2018  Tech support scams are an industry-wide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a Microsoft Agent or Microsoft Employee and that the phone number is an official Microsoft global customer service number. Visual Studio for Mac follows the Microsoft Modern Lifecycle Policy, starting with the date the major product version is released to the world (RTW). Servicing is performed through 'Updates' which are packages of new features and cumulative fixes for existing features in the product. Dec 13, 2019 Visual Studio for Mac supports the following types of development: ASP.NET Core web applications with C#, F#, and support for Razor pages, JavaScript and TypeScript.NET Core console applications with C# or F#. Cross-platform Unity games and applications with C#. Android, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Other interesting Mac alternatives to Visual Studio Code are Sublime Text (Paid), Vim (Free, Open Source), Eclipse (Free, Open Source) and Microsoft Visual Studio (Free Personal). Visual Studio 2019 for Mac Releases. April 1, 2020 - Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5.1; March 16, 2020 - Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5; Visual Studio 2019 for Mac Blog Posts. The Visual Studio Blog is the official source of product insight from the Visual Studio Engineering Team. You can find in-depth information about the.

Visual Studio In Mac

  1. Visual Studio for Mac allows you to set a run configuration. The run configurations are presented in a drop-down list in the toolbar, next to the build configuration selector as illustrated below: A run configuration is a set of execution options with a name and several configurations that are defined in a project for different purposes.
  2. Open source command line interface for Visual Studio Team Services from Windows, Linux, and Mac. Manage pull requests, builds, work items, and more directly from a command prompt or from scripts. See the docs for more information. For manual download and install steps check out these links – Windows, Linux, Mac.

This section explains how to get started using Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity.

Studio

Install Visual Studio for Mac

Unity Bundled Installation

Starting with Unity 2018.1, Visual Studio for Mac is the default C# integrated development environment (IDE) for Unity, and is included in the Unity Download Assistant as well as the Unity Hub installation tool. Download Unity from store.unity.com.

During installation, ensure that Visual Studio for Mac is checked in the list of components to install with Unity:

Unity Hub

Unity Download Assistant

Check for Updates to Visual Studio for Mac

The version of Visual Studio for Mac included with the Unity installation may not be the latest. It is recommended to check for updates to ensure you have access to the latest tools and features.

Manual installation

If you already have Unity 5.6.1 or above, but don't have Visual Studio for Mac, you can install Visual Studio for Mac manually. All editions of Visual Studio for Mac are bundled with Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity, including the free Community edition:

Using Visual Studio On Mac

  • Download Visual Studio for Mac from visualstudio.microsoft.com.
  • Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity are installed automatically during the installation process.
  • Follow the steps in the installation guide for additional installation help.

Note

Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity requires Unity version 5.6.1 or above. To verify that Visual Studio Tools for Unity are enabled in your version of Unity, select About Unity from the Unity menu and look for the text 'Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Unity enabled' in the bottom-left of the dialog.

Confirm that the Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity extension is enabled

While the Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity extension should be enabled by default, you can confirm this and check the installed version number:

  1. From the Visual Studio menu, select Extensions....

  2. Expand the Game Development section and confirm the Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity entry.

Configure Unity for use with Visual Studio for Mac

Starting with Unity 2018.1, Visual Studio should be the default external script editor in Unity. You can confirm this or change the external script editor to Visual Studio:

  1. Select Preferences... from the Unity menu.

  2. In the Preferences dialog, select the External Tools tab.

  3. From the External Script Editor dropdown list, choose Visual Studio if it is listed, otherwise select Browse....

  4. If Browse... was selected, navigate to the Applications directory and select Visual Studio and then click Open.

  5. Once Visual Studio is selected in the External Script Editor list, close the Preferences dialog to complete the configuration process.

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Click the button to download the latest version of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac. For information on the system requirements see the see Mac System Requirementsand Mac Platform Targeting and Compatibility guides.

For instructions on installing and updating Visual Studio 2019 for Mac, see theInstall Visual Studio for Mac guide.

To learn more about other related downloads, see the Downloads page.

What's New in Visual Studio 2019 for Mac

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac Releases

  • April 7, 2020 - Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5.2
  • April 1, 2020 - Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5.1
  • March 16, 2020 - Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac Blog Posts

The Visual Studio 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

In this release of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac we replaced our old Git implementation, refreshed our color palette and icons, and we addressed a number of issues with the debugger, test tools, and project system.

Known Issues

Refer to the Known Issues section.

Visual studio for mac alternative

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5.2 (8.5.2.13)

For

released April 7, 2020

Visual Studio for Mac 8.5 Service Release 2 addresses the following:

Visual Studio For Mac Alternative

  • A user navigating with the keyboard can not navigate to the 'Reset' button in the Xamarin Designer Property Panel.
  • We fixed an issue where commits do not work in projects using Git worktree.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac may become unresponsive when popping a stash in a project under Git.
  • We fixed an issue where projects pushed to GitHub fail to show new files or directories.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5.1 (8.5.1.42)

released April 1, 2020

This release includes the following updates:

  • Support for Xcode 11.4.
  • We fixed an issue with increased UI delays when working with Xamarin.iOS projects.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac shows in current window on Mac when selected.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac goes to background when switching virtual desktops.
  • We fixed an issue where Version Control does not recognize newly added files in a folder.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac tells me to install Command Line Tools but it's already installed.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.5 (8.5.0.3183)

released March 23, 2020

New Features

Accessibility

This release of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac brings a refreshed color palette, new icons, and updated warning and error status messages. Color contrast ratios for text and icons have been increased to improve clarity. Visual Studio for Mac also now fully suports macOS High Contrast Mode.

In addition to the visual changes, this release of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac has made a number changes to increase overall accessibility of the IDE. These include:

  • Improvements to focus order and visibility when using VoiceOver in the debugger, NuGet Package Manager and project options dialog.
  • Areas previously inaccessible by keyboard navigation, such as the pin and eye icon, are now navigable by keyboard.
  • Enhanced feedback from VoiceOver for debugger staus.
  • After creating a project using the New Project Dialog, the IDE now accurately announces “project created” status message to VoiceOver users.
  • Fixes to the NuGet Package manager that allow keyboard access to the Browse, Installed, Update and Consolidate tabs.
  • VoiceOver now announces the selected version in the 'New version' dropdown.
  • VoiceOver now announces more information when using version control, the publish to Azure feature, and in a number of additional areas.

Version Control

We replaced our old Git implementation with a wrapper around the official Git command line client, which is already used by Visual Studio on Windows, in order to improve the overall performace and reliability of Git support in the IDE. The new Git support depends on the official git client. The recommended way to install Git is to install it as part of the Xcode Command Line Tools by running xcode-select --install in the Terminal app (Xcode does not need to be installed).

Debugger

  • Function breakpoints can now be edited.
  • We have improved stepping performance in .NET Core projects.

Editor

  • We updated Light & Dark themes to match Visual Studio.

Installer

  • We added a new item to the carousel to allow users to sign up for ASP.NET Core tips.
  • We added support to implement CLI tools required by version control.
  • We integrated error reporting to aid in improving future quality.

Web and Azure

  • We bumped to the latest .NET Core release.
  • We added authentication support in the New Project Dialog for ASP.NET Core projects.
  • We added support for v2/v3 of Azure Functions runtime.

NuGet

  • We bumped NuGet to 5.4.

Xamarin

  • You can now see a hierarchy of your Xamarin.Forms controls in the Document Outline pane. On Windows, it can be opened with Ctrl+Alt+T (View > Other Windows > Document Outline). On Mac, you can open it via Views > Pads > Document Outline.
  • When debugging multiple projects at the same time, you can now use XAML Hot Reload simultaneously on both targets. For example, you can use XAML Hot Reload to see how your XAML change looks on both an iOS and Android phone at the same time. Learn more about debugging multiple process in the Visual Studio 2019 documentation.
  • You can now set the default iOS Designer in Visual Studio for Mac. Any changes made in the Xcode storyboard designer will be synchronized back to Visual Studio for Mac automatically.
  • You can now apply Android resource changes at runtime using Android Apply Changes. This feature allows you to quickly see changes made to your Android resource files (XML layouts, drawables, etc) on an Android device or emulator without requiring the application to be restarted.
  • You can now generate your own custom profiles when using startup tracing in your Android application. This provides you an even more performant startup experience with a minimal increase to APK size.
  • You can now generate Xamarin.Android bindings against Kotlin libraries.
  • You can now use the Google Manifest Merger when merging AndroidManifest.xml files in your Android projects. This allows you to customize how each manifest and its contents will be merged. For more details on rules that can be applied, please see Merge multiple manifest files.
  • The option to use shared project has been removed when creating a new Xamarin.Forms app. New Xamarin.Forms apps will now use .NET Standard to ensure the best development experience.

Bug Fixes

Shell

  • We fixed an issue where the start window shows when launching from Unity and cant be closed.
  • We fixed an issue where right clicking a tab causes Visual Studio for Mac to crash

Editor

Visual Studio For Mac Tutorial

  • We fixed an issue where Code Analysis ruleset is ignore and a bunch of conflicting warnings are presented by Visual Studio for Mac.
  • We fixed an issue where method documentation is gone.
  • We fixed an issue where there is no syntax highlighting and autocompletion in T4 templates.
  • We fixed an issue where copy and paste did not work between certain types of files 123.
  • We fixed an issue with color contrast during field renaming with the new theme.
  • We improved VoiceOver accessibility for the Quick Fixes and Refactorings menu.
  • We fixed a crash viewing certain file types on macOS 10.13.

Debugger

  • We fixed an issue where value visualizer is always blank.
  • We fixed an issue that caused inspecting nested variables in hierarchy to take longer than expected.
  • We fixed an issue where viewing variables with async methods shows nothing.
  • We fixed an issue where the debugger would not show variable inspection icons correctly.
  • We fixed an issue that prevented watched expressions from being removed with the backspace key.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac does not break on the line of an unhandled exception in .NET Core projects.
  • We fixed an issue where the DataTip (variable inspect) font size looks small.
  • We fixed an issue where the pin variable icon during debugging is initially missing.
  • We fixed an issue where the UI buttons for stepping are slow to respond and make stepping feel very slow.
  • We fixed an issue where values might not be able to be copied from the locals and watch pads.
  • We fixed an issue where the .NET Core debugger would not show System.Drawing.Color values.
  • We fixed an issue where the Attach to Process dialog shows no processes.
  • We fixed an issue where the Debugger stops on lines without a breakpoint set (in multiple startup projects).
  • We fixed an issue where watched expressions are removed after trying to rename them in the Watch Pad.
  • We fixed an issue where saving edits from the Text visualizer during debugging does not save changes.
  • We fixed an issue where the Locals pad is not updating after editing variable value in the visualizer.
  • We fixed an issue that could cause spurious scrolling when stepping through code.

Project

  • We fixed an issue where StyleCop rules are ignored.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac automatically closes my solution claiming that a file is gone - but it is not.
  • We fixed an issue where an occasional dialogue about mono-sgen32 not optimised for my Mac appears.
  • We fixed an issue where creating a project with a name that already exists in one folder disables the dialog.
  • We fixed an issue where “mono-sgen32” is not optimized for your Mac and needs to be updated.
  • Report a problem dialog hidden when attaching a new file.
  • Cmd + . file search now has to be pressed twice.
  • Navigate to shortcut won't focus search text box.
  • We fixed an issue where the Solution Explorer is showing duplicate files.
  • We fixed an issue where deleting file from SDK style project adds unnecessary data into .csproj file.
  • We fixed an issue where the wrong version of a multi-target project is referenced in a .NET Framework project.
  • We fixed an issue where there is no IntelliSense for NUnit types when adding a new NUnit project to an existing solution.
  • We fixed an issue that prevented a file from being removed from the project when the file was missing.
  • We fixed an issue that would cause some MSBuild properties to not be fully evaluated.
  • We fixed an issue where linked files could not be removed from the project.
  • We fixed an issue where duplicate files are shown in the Solution window.

Version Control

  • We fixed an issue where the version control file drop down is (partially) broken.
  • We fixed an issue where libhostfxr.dylib is not signed.
  • We fixed an issue where the status of modified files was not updated after saving or reverting changes.
  • We fixed an issue with the overall performance when working with solutions inside a git repository.
  • We fixed an issue with macOS continously prompting to install Xcode command line tools.
  • We fixed an issue where Git 'Authors' incorrectly shows the 1st line as modified.
  • We fixed an issue where renaming a file can cause a UI hang.
  • We fixed an issue where Switch to Branch menu is missing.
  • We fixed an issue where a new file was not shown in the Status View if it was not added/staged manually.
  • We fixed an issue where there are issues with BOM in the Status View diff.

Web Tools

Microsoft Visual Studio Alternative For Mac Free

  • We fixed an issue where custom parameters do not persist.
  • We fixed an issue where .NET Core web application MVC template creates multiple launchSettings.json and appsettings.json files.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac 2019 has no controller scaffolding with views.
  • We fixed an issue where launchSettings.json are changed on save.

NuGet

Microsoft Visual Studio Alternative For Mac Download

  • We fixed an issue where unable to get repository signature information for source.
  • We fixed an issue where NuGets are not refreshing.

Test Tools

  • We fixed an issue where the test heirarchy is jumbled and breaks namespace names.
  • We fixed an issue with weird nesting in the 'Unit Tests' pad.
  • We fixed an issue that can cause test discovery to fail.
  • We fixed some additional nested issues related to weird nesting in 'Unit Tests' explorer/window.

Known Issues

Feedback

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.

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