Microsoft announced that Visual Studio for Mac is out of preview, so Apple users can now download the new version of the code-driven platform developed for their systems.
Visual Studio for Mac comes with Xamarin integration, which allows developers to create macOS and iOS apps without the need for emulator software or Windows systems. The software giant recently acquired Xamarin, and now all of its projects are being integrated and gradually becoming part of Microsoft products.
Apple developers get comprehensive support for a range of code hosting services like GitHub and Microsoft's Visual Studio Team Services, while also getting integration with Azure, Microsoft's cloud service.
The list of changes included in Visual Studio for Mac is huge and you can see it on the company's official website, but one particular feature we can't help but mention. These are the accessibility features that, although they have improved a lot, Microsoft believes that further changes are needed.
The new version of Visual Studio for Mac includes support for technologies like Voice Over. Many parts of the user interface, such as the editor and solution explorer, have been made accessible through such technologies. However, this is still a work in progress, so expect more improvements in future releases.
Microsoft offers three different versions of Visual Studio for Mac: Visual Studio Community, Visual Studio Professional, and Visual Studio Enterprise. The good news for students is that Visual Studio Community is free, so they can start coding right away.
