I'm a mac user but I do a lot of work in Umbraco. I'd like to set up a virtual Windows machine using Parallels Desktop and Visual Studio for Umbraco development.
What Windows version and Visual Studio version would be the best for it? I'm not sure if that's important but I will be using c# language.
Personally I am running also Parallels Desktop and Visual Studio. I am using Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2015 community with works fine for me. I have also earlier used Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2013, with no problems.
It would be quite interesting to know how many people do .net in either a non-ms IDE or in a straight text editor/backoffice.
Considering the knowledge required across such a vast range of programming/scripting languages, markup and frameworks. I feel it would be nuts NOT to use Visual Studio. I understand there are a couple of mac only IDEs that support an Intellisense style lookup with colour coding and other code helpers.
The heavy lifting VS provides in version 2015 is now so mature, I just don't know how I could work without it! lol.
But everyone has their own personal requirements and favorites, I suppose.
I must admit i have been tempted many times, but i just find VS so confusing i just return to the simplicity of a simple editor. Sure i'm missing intellisense an all that goodness, and as frustrated as i often get by razor, i still get on :).
But then again, i'm a front ender, i don't do "Heavy lifting" :)
Hmm, yea its a little more discreet if you only do frontend work. But VS2015 is incredibly sophisticated in this area now too! Its become a swiss army knife, and you may only end up using a blade or two! As I need to hit the APIs as well as Razor, I couldn't live without it.
We also have a bit of an XSLT code legacy in our projects, and it's been a godsend to be able to debug this at times. XSLT is such an abstract way working it all to easy to get lost in it! We're slowly replacing it all with Razor...
I'm not sure what the deal is but Intellisense dies bigtime. So not really a requirement, it'll still build and run. But you'll lose some of the tools.
Hey PJ. My main machine is a Mac as well. Ultimately it doesn't matter what version of Windows or Parallels you run. That will not make any big difference in the final outcome. Probably best just to run recent versions of everything, especially when it comes to your Mac OS and Parallels versions. The latest version of Parallels is highly tuned for the latest version of Mac OS and Windows.
From there it is all logistical and personal settings. I have keymapped a lot of Mac-esque shortcuts like Command + Up/Right/Left/Down so it acts like it does on the Mac side. I prefer running my sites in IIS proper, so I map a host entry per site to point to my Windows VM in order to access the site via Mac. There is a performance mode that you can set on developer, which will tune a lot of the memory and processor settings in Parallels.
That's about all I can think off the top of my head. I cannot wait for the days of ASP.NET 5 and Visual Studio Code. That will truly be something. Until then, damn curious to know what this is about
https://instagram.com/p/7pwAKCp8XG/
Thanks everybody for your replies but I'm still a little bit confused which version of VS2015 should I choose. Can I go with Visual Studio 2015 community or do I need Visual Studio Professional 2015? If Professional what licence do I need Standalone License or Standard Subscription (I would need also TFS)? And what benefits MSDN gives me?
If somebody that is familiarised with it could shed some light I would be grateful.
The Community version of VS2015 should be just fine for your needs. The most notable feature that's missing is TFS, and you should be able to use Git instead if you want the source control (and you will).
Umbraco kit for a Mac user
I'm a mac user but I do a lot of work in Umbraco. I'd like to set up a virtual Windows machine using Parallels Desktop and Visual Studio for Umbraco development.
What Windows version and Visual Studio version would be the best for it? I'm not sure if that's important but I will be using c# language.
Thanks, PJ
Hi PJ,
Try to see the requirements for running Umbraco CMS https://our.umbraco.org/documentation/Getting-Started/Setup/Requirements/
Personally I am running also Parallels Desktop and Visual Studio. I am using Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2015 community with works fine for me. I have also earlier used Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2013, with no problems.
Hope this helps,
/Dennis
Hi PJ
Windows version, whatever you're most comfortable using. I use 7 at work and 10 at home.
Visual Studio, if you're using Umbraco versions lower than 7.3 you can go as far back as VS2010 without any major problems.
7.3 and higher requires VS2015 due to the MVC upgrade.
I don't think I could work on Umbraco without VS tbh.
Regards Martin.
Not a direct answer to PJ, but to clear things up for anyone else reading this thread.
I have built hundreds of umbraco sites on a mac, and i have never used Visual Studio, so it's entirely possible.
If you need to do custom backend stuff, im sure it will be necessary, but for normal websites, not so much.
It would be quite interesting to know how many people do .net in either a non-ms IDE or in a straight text editor/backoffice.
Considering the knowledge required across such a vast range of programming/scripting languages, markup and frameworks. I feel it would be nuts NOT to use Visual Studio. I understand there are a couple of mac only IDEs that support an Intellisense style lookup with colour coding and other code helpers.
The heavy lifting VS provides in version 2015 is now so mature, I just don't know how I could work without it! lol.
But everyone has their own personal requirements and favorites, I suppose.
Martin.
I must admit i have been tempted many times, but i just find VS so confusing i just return to the simplicity of a simple editor. Sure i'm missing intellisense an all that goodness, and as frustrated as i often get by razor, i still get on :).
But then again, i'm a front ender, i don't do "Heavy lifting" :)
Whoa, 7.3 requires VS 2015? That is quite the barrier to entry.
Hmm, yea its a little more discreet if you only do frontend work. But VS2015 is incredibly sophisticated in this area now too! Its become a swiss army knife, and you may only end up using a blade or two! As I need to hit the APIs as well as Razor, I couldn't live without it.
We also have a bit of an XSLT code legacy in our projects, and it's been a godsend to be able to debug this at times. XSLT is such an abstract way working it all to easy to get lost in it! We're slowly replacing it all with Razor...
As I said though, each to their own...
Hi Matthew
I'm not sure what the deal is but Intellisense dies bigtime. So not really a requirement, it'll still build and run. But you'll lose some of the tools.
M.
Hey PJ. My main machine is a Mac as well. Ultimately it doesn't matter what version of Windows or Parallels you run. That will not make any big difference in the final outcome. Probably best just to run recent versions of everything, especially when it comes to your Mac OS and Parallels versions. The latest version of Parallels is highly tuned for the latest version of Mac OS and Windows.
From there it is all logistical and personal settings. I have keymapped a lot of Mac-esque shortcuts like Command + Up/Right/Left/Down so it acts like it does on the Mac side. I prefer running my sites in IIS proper, so I map a host entry per site to point to my Windows VM in order to access the site via Mac. There is a performance mode that you can set on developer, which will tune a lot of the memory and processor settings in Parallels.
That's about all I can think off the top of my head. I cannot wait for the days of ASP.NET 5 and Visual Studio Code. That will truly be something. Until then, damn curious to know what this is about https://instagram.com/p/7pwAKCp8XG/
Happy devving!
Hi,
Thanks everybody for your replies but I'm still a little bit confused which version of VS2015 should I choose. Can I go with Visual Studio 2015 community or do I need Visual Studio Professional 2015? If Professional what licence do I need Standalone License or Standard Subscription (I would need also TFS)? And what benefits MSDN gives me?
If somebody that is familiarised with it could shed some light I would be grateful.
Thanks, PJ
The Community version of VS2015 should be just fine for your needs. The most notable feature that's missing is TFS, and you should be able to use Git instead if you want the source control (and you will).
Check out the feature comparison here: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/compare-visual-studio-2015-products-vs.aspx
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