Microsoft Adds Node.js Support To Visual Studio 197
shutdown -p now writes "Coming from the team that had previously brought you Python Tools for Visual Studio, Microsoft has announced Node.js Tools for Visual Studio, with the release of the first public alpha. NTVS is the official extension for Visual Studio that adds support for Node.js, including editing with Intellisense, debugging, profiling, and the ability to deploy Node.js websites to Windows Azure. An overview video showcases the features, and Scott Hanselman has a detailed walkthrough. The project is open source under Apache License 2.0. While the extension is published by Microsoft, it is a collaborative effort involving Microsoft, Red Gate (which previously had a private beta version of similar product called Visual Node), and individual contributors from the Node.js community."
Re:JavaScript, its better than a kick in the head. (Score:3, Informative)
Not really sure what that has to do with Node.js applications deployed to something like Azure. How many browsers are going to be running that?
I know I can think of things I'd rather do than inflict Javascript on myself in more places than I have to.
Re:node.js.Extend.too ? (Score:5, Informative)
(disclosure: I am a developer on PTVS and NTVS team)
I would hope that the track record of our particular team with Python Tools would speak for itself here - it's been out there for two years now, with 2.0 released last month, and it was and remains all about standard Python. While it does support IronPython, for example (but also Jython, PyPy, and other third party implementations), CPython remains the primary target because that's what the community uses, and our goal is to attract developers from said community to VS, Azure, and other Microsoft platforms and products, not to hijack their language/framework of choice.
The story with NTVS is similar: it's all about making VS a compelling choice for Node.js developers without forcing a Microsoft-top-to-bottom stack on them (which no-one would accept, and rightly so). In that sense, it is in line with Azure offering Linux VMs, or the ability to write Node.js-based Azure push notification services for Windows and Windows Phone.
Re:What about Powershell ? (Score:5, Informative)
Why can't Microsoft put out a Visual Studio plugin for Powershell with full intellisense, breakpointing, inspections, etc. ?
We don't need to - someone else already did that [microsoft.com].
Keep in mind that we're a relatively small group - 6 developers/testers (we all do both) and 1 project manager, covering two projects already (PTVS and NTVS). We can only do so much. Then again, that's precisely why the code for both products is open source - so that people can take it and use it as a foundation for similar products for other languages. Here [microsoft.com] is one more for PHP, for example.
Re:Stop with JavaScript (Score:4, Informative)
it's so great that it'll allow you to just decide to use some member variable somewhere without declaring it
Undeclared variables are implicitly global. A code inspector will warn you about mistakes like that!
there's no way to know the type of a variable
It should be clear from the way it's used or by the documentation (if it exists). This is true of not only Javascript, but every dynamic language. If that's not good enough, use one of the readily-available and straightforward debuggers. Another quick approach is to just console.log(var)
Re:Just what the nodejs (Score:4, Informative)
Or Visual Studio's holding down ALT while selecting a block, or textpad's block mode?