Integrate with Visual Studio

Currently the Visual Studio Code integration is perfect, is there any plan to integrate with Visual Studio which will enable a better C/C++ development environment?

… there already is? Docs.

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I have tried to use Platform IO with Visual Studio. I ran into some problem but even if I resolve them, it seems that there are some fundamental limits with the integration with Visual Studio because VS does not support well cross-platform development even with Platform IO.

For example, I could not find detailed information about how to configure VS to control independently building the firmware and uploading it (VS project templates do not seem to allow to specify separate commands for building and uploading/running firmware) and/or debugging firmware via JTAG. In other words, it seems that the integration between with visual studio and PlatformIO is fundamentally limited by Visual Studio characteristics. If this is true, it would be nice to specify it somewhere in the documentation (e.g. where is discussed limits with Intellisense). Note that I have only been able to try with VS2015 but I can’t find solutions on internet either.

Here is the information that I collected when exploring how Visual Studio might be used to develop embedded projects:

  • Arduino Wiring fo VS2015 is not anymore maintained and apparently work only with some Arduino boards.
  • WindowsIoT Core is another Microsoft Initiative targeting embedded but that it aims only devices that support Universal Windows Platform (UWP), the evolution of Windows RT. It includes support for Raspberry but not small boards (ESP32, Amtel). See also the templates for IoT core for Visual Studio (including VS2015).
  • Visual Micro provides integration with Visual Studio for Arduino and other boards and is an alternative to Platform IO but it is not free.
  • VisualGDB is another alternative that provides integration with Visual Studio but it is also not free.

Apparently integration between Visual Studio Code and Platform IO goes deeper (many more people use it) and, in particular, it offers a independent build and upload control as well as debugging.

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