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Preview 9 of Visual Studio for Mac is out as GA approaches

Addresses 'top reported issues'.. apart from that whole C++ thing

Microsoft has made available an updated preview of Visual Studio 2022 for Mac, addressing what it described as the "top reported issues" in preview 9.

The VS team's move could be seen as an example to the Windows crew, following an "Ask Microsoft Anything" in which Microsoft didn't seem convinced by calls to "Bring back the ability to move the taskbar to the top and sides of the screen on Windows 11", despite the request still topping the charts on the Windows Feedback Hub.

Things aren't entirely perfect for VS: C++ support, for example, remains under review, even though it is second behind CodeLens support (which is at least on the roadmap) in terms of user requests.

Still, there is much to like in VS Preview 9. A problem where files could not be moved around the Solution Explorer is now fixed, as well as a strange one where a user was unable to save changes to an open XAML file.

Microsoft's Feedback Bot reported the issue as "fixed by accident", sounding for all the world like we're about to get submissions to our Who, Me? IT error confessional column from AIs.

Other useful changes this time around include a fix for debugging unit tests and a fix for a highly frustrating user interface glitch where the horizontal and vertical splitters stopped working.

Microsoft also sorted out problems with loading Apple certificates and addressed a CVE-2020-8927 buffer overflow vulnerability.

The Windows maker emitted Visual Studio 2022 for Mac in public preview late last year, complete with a move to native macOS user interface. It finished the move earlier this year and added support for .NET Core development on M1 (arm64) devices.

There was, unfortunately, no such native love for Windows on Arm with Microsoft recommending users steer clear of the platform for Visual Studio for Windows.

Visual Studio Code, on the other hand, went native on Arm almost two years ago.

The GA version of Visual Studio 2022 for Mac 17 is due at some point in the first half of 2022, so it potentially has some months before it sees light of day.

Judging by the fixes this time around, there still remains a bit of work left to do and with the gap between previews reducing to fewer than two weeks it seems likely we'll see more releases before GA arrives. ®

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