WinTools 1.1, TypeScript 1.6 RTM, and Tools for Apache Cordova Updates

Visual Studio Blog

We’ve just released updates to several tools, along with something new for developers working with the Apache Cordova CLI.

Tools for Universal Windows apps (v1.1). This update addresses a number of key issues reported by you in Visual Studio 2015 RTM including several .NET Native fixes, an updated NuGet release (v3.2), and fixes related to the XAML designer, unit testing and the debugger. You can build and submit apps to the Universal Windows Store using these tools right away. For a more detailed list of changes in this release, see the Release Notes . To update to Visual Studio Tools for Universal Windows Apps (v1.1), you can install by using the entry in the notification hub or Extensions and Updates, or you can run the installer. If you are using Visual Studio 2015 Express for Windows, see the release notes for instructions.

TypeScript 1.6 for Visual Studio is available for Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2013, and can also be acquired via npm and as source on GitHub. TypeScript 1.6 has several significant new features and more flexible ways to use TypeScript. TypeScript 1.6 adds support for JSX/React syntax, allowing React developers to mix TypeScript code and JSX HTML-like syntax using the new .tsx file extension. In addition to compiler support, you can use the new mixed syntax in Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code, or Visual Studio. Developers have long requested abstract classes to enable authoring of uninstantiable classes with default function implementations, and TypeScript 1.6 now has them. Class expressions enable you to declare a class as you would any other expression, inline and exactly where you need it. User defined type guards allow you to create type guard functions using any type or interface. Intersection types and generic type aliases make working with types just a little easier. We’ve also added better error checking on object literals and improved the module resolution for CommonJS users. There are a lot of features in this TypeScript 1.6, and we’d love to hear your feedback.

Tools for Apache Cordova. Based on your feedback, this update of the Tools for Apache Cordova has dozens of bug fixes along with performance and reliability improvements. Enterprise customers will also benefit from a new ADAL plugin that provides straight-forward authentication for your Apache Cordova apps using Windows Server Active Directory and Windows Azure Active Directory.

Finally, the new Tools for Apache Cordova CLI (a.k.a. “TACO”) provides a way for Mac and Windows users to develop with a set of platforms and plugins validated by the Visual Studio product team. Developers can also install the native Android and iOS (Mac-only) SDKs and build tools straight from the command line. Learn more at http://taco.tools.  [9/17 note: the download has not yet been updated…we will remove this note when the release is available.]

 

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Kraig Brockschmidt, Senior Content Developer, Visual Studio

@kraigbro

Kraig has been around Microsoft since 1988, working in roles that always have to do with helping developers write great software. Currently he’s focused on developing content for cross-platform mobile app development with both Xamarin and Cordova. He writes for MSDN Magazine, is the author of Programming Windows Store Apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript (two editions) and Inside OLE (two editions, if you remember those) from Microsoft Press, occasionally blogs on kraigbrockschmidt.com, and can be found lurking around a variety of developer conferences.

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