This is 100% blog spam. Actual announcement: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2013/06/03/teched-...

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/2013-downloads

I'm sorry, what the heck does "5,000 APIs" mean?

An API is like a platform or a mini-platform. 5,000 of them makes no sense. Do they mean 5,000 new API function calls in the Windows platform or something? Although that would be insanely large too. I don't get it.

The only appearance of 5,000 I can find is the following one in the Visual Studio 2013 Preview announcement [1].

»In that context, we have our Build 2013 developer conference this week in San Francisco, where approximately 5000 developers have gathered in person (with many thousands more watching virtually) from around the world to discuss the next generation of software development with platforms and tools from Microsoft.«

Maybe someone just confused developers and APIs...

[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2013/06/26/visual-...

Well spotted!

I was worried for a minute there.

I don't know any product that could even reach 5000 API calls. Win32 isn't anywhere near that even after 20+ years.

Somewhat cynically: given the Byzantine nature of Microsoft, perhaps there really are 5000 APIs, all created by different groups. :)

More likely they're just sloppily enumerating function endpoints.

It was pretty silly when Apple made a similar boast (WWDC 2012? 2011?) and it is still silly when Microsoft does it.

I think Apple meant new methods, classes and possibly even the options that you could pass as arguments.

Whatever it means I don't think that more is necessarily better and I hope no one has adding APIs as a performance metric!

It was in OS X Lion. Apple's since removed the page, but it is saved in the internet archive.[0]

> "Lion offers over 3,000 new APIs covering a range of new technologies and capabilities."

[0] http://web.archive.org/web/20130425175054/https://developer....

The set of APIs is closed under union.

A single function call specification is an API; and the union of two APIs is an API. So it's perfectly cromulent to say "We added 5000 new APIs to the WinRT API", as bizarre and confusing as it sounds, though AIUI only Microsoft routinely refers to single function signatures as APIs -- perhaps to make their products sound more impressive.

I don't know where this horrible practice originated, but this usually means 5000 function calls, yes. I often hear people say "do {this website] have APIs" too, with plurals.

X64 edit and continue, at last!!

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/archive/2013/06/26/announcing...

Nice! In practice that just meant I always switched to x86.

'Managed return value inspection' is a nice enhancement too.

Ha thanks, this was really frustrating indeed.

I was wondering why I would want to upgrade from 2012 because windows 8.1 isn't it. Now I know.

Does this imply there will be a 64 bit VS? Or will it just take place entirely in an emulator?

x64 is one of the 'build platforms' for .NET projects in Visual Studio:

   With Visual Studio 2013 Preview, you can now use [Edit and Continue] with x64, 
   AnyCPU, and (of course) x86 projects.

See also: http://visualstudiohacks.com/articles/visual-studio-net-plat...

lostoptimist surely meant running visual studio itself as a 64 bit process to use more than 4 gb of ram

In case you're a Python dev, VS2013 now includes support. info at http://pytools.codeplex.com. Has a neat feature to debug CPython & C++ together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJaKQ94lBY

That URL would have me believe that it's a third party add-on, pytools, that has support VS2013. Am I misunderstanding, or does VS2013 actually support python natively?

It's a first-party add-on. Support doesn't come in the box (as far as I know), but it is developed by Microsoft.

bskap is correct. It's developed by Microsoft as a free & open source extension to VS. You can use the VS "Shell" with PTVS to create a fully functional and free Python IDE. Support is via the forums on codeplex. The good part is that it's monitored directly by the devs on the team.

original announcement here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/ and Somasegar's MSDN blog post on it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2013/06/03/teched-...

They seem to be going the way of Google, in a bad way. I don't want to "Sign in" to my IDE/compiler.

How else are they going to keep track of your achievements and integrate with xbox live?

i don`t even... what?! since when is it cool and trendy to write code?

Since 1984. (You had to be there...)

It will be optional in the final version according to a blog post.

You know... adding 5K new things to a platform is not necessarily a good thing. Can you say bloat?

Or, you know... they could be all great and much needed?

Not really. I (tried) WinRT development when the Surface first came out. The API is pretty bare and lacks a lot of frameworks and general tools that you take for granted in iOS/Android land.

Expanding the API, at least in that direction, is probably a great thing.

Am I the only one who thinks they should call it VS 2014? By time it ships it'll only have a few months before it has an outdated title.

It seems to me that there will be yearly releases to coincide with the yearly release of Windows so there will likely be a separate VS2014.

I don't get it either. There was already a VS2012, and changing to VS2013 for a few months seems like a decision driven by some weird force. Waiting to release for another 3 months would not have killed anyone.

They usually +1 the version every time there is a base windows release which is what Windows 8.1 actually is.

I'm not complaining as I get it on MSDN under my subscription.

How about going back to version numbers so it doesn't matter what year it came out like everyone else?

You should be happy they'll ship another one within 12 months! /sarcasm

I'm sorry but I can't parse "5000 new APIs", I start bleeding out of my nose. This is spam and incredibly shoddy journalism, even by engadget standards. Flagged.

some new abandon ware

Yesterday i had to explain to some people i work with what Microsoft is, they dont know it, and dont understand it, they are used to android these days. And find the whole thing confusing why pay for it ?.. its hard to justify or explain..

I downvoted you for misuse of the word abandonware combined with off topic and poorly justified Microsoft bashing.

Our army of developer has over 9000 penises and 5000 APIs.