A More Productive IDE for Modern Applications

While Visual Studio 2012 Professional supports several new technologies (for example, Windows Store apps and the ASP.NET Web API), the Visual Studio team seems to have taken the opportunity to concentrate on creating a “better IDE.” They started with an overhaul of the UI. Although the Visual Studio 2012 UI overhaul isn’t nearly as drastic as what Microsoft has done with Windows Store apps, it includes many significant changes. That’s not to say there aren’t lots of non-UI improvements, but let’s talk first about the “why” of those changes.