This is the README file for Visual D, a Visual Studio package providing both project management and language services

Copyright (c) 2010-2018 by Rainer Schuetze, All Rights Reserved

Visual D aims at providing seamless integration of the D programming language into Visual Studio.

For installer download, more documentation and build instructions, please visit http://rainers.github.io/visuald/visuald/StartPage.html. Use forum http://forum.dlang.org/group/digitalmars.D.ide for questions and the D bug tracker https://issues.dlang.org/ to report issues.

• Project management

  • all DMD and GDC command line options accessable
  • support for GDC and LDC
  • support for resource compiler
  • custom build commands
  • pre/post custom build steps
  • automatic dependency generation
  • automatic link between dependend projects
  • new project templates

• Debugger

  • integrates cv2pdb for seamless integration with the VS native debugger
  • integrates mago, a debug engine dedicated to D

• Language Service

  • syntax highlighting with special version/debug and token string support
  • underlining of syntactical errors
  • semantic analysis for code completion, goto definition and tool tips
  • import statement completion
  • parameter info tooltips
  • smart indentation
  • comment/uncomment selection
  • highlight/jump-to matching braces
  • code snippets
  • display of scope at caret position
  • code outlining
  • paste visually from clipboard ring
  • code definition window
  • search and replace dialog based on D tokenizer
  • browse information displayed in object browser and class view
  • help on language and runtime library

• Other

  • symbol/file search window
  • profiler window
  • C++ to D conversion wizard
  • dustmite integration
  • disassembly view synchronized with source code

• Supported Visual Studio versions

  • VS 2008
  • VS 2010
  • VS 2012
  • VS 2013
  • VS 2015
  • VS 2017

  Unfortunately, Express versions of Visual Studio do not support this kind of extensions. Use the Visual Studio Shell instead:

  • VS 2008 Shell: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9771
  • VS 2010 Shell: no longer available
  • VS 2012 Shell: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30670 + http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30663

  Starting with VS 2013, Microsoft also released Community Versions of Visual Studio, which are free for most users and are similar to the professional editions.

• Includes tools to

  • convert some idl/h files of the Windows SDK to D
  • convert all idl/h files from the Visual Studio Integration SDK to D
  • convert C++ code to D (which was targeted at machine-translating the DMD front end to D, but this was abandoned)
  • convert Java code to D (which was targeted at machine-translating parts of the Eclipse plugin Descent to D, but this was abandoned)

• Completely written in D2

This code is distributed under the terms of the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. For more details, see the full text of the license in the file LICENSE_1.0.txt.

The installer comes with a number of additional products:

• cv2pdb: https://github.com/rainers/cv2pdb by Rainer Schuetze
• mago: http://dsource.org/projects/mago_debugger by Aldo Nunez
• DParser: https://github.com/aBothe/D_Parser by Alexander Bothe

The click-through-installer will guide you through the installation process. The installer lets you select the Visual Studio Version for which you want Visual D to be installed. It will always install for all users, not only for a single user.

To compile your application, you must have DMD, LDC or GDC installed. For LDC and GDC, after installation you must setup Visual D to find them: see Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions->Visual D Settings->LDC Directories and GDC Directories, respectively.

For debugging applications, you should also install cv2pdb which is now included in the Visual D installer. Please make sure, changes to Common7\Packages\Debugger\autoexp.dat do not mix with previous manual installations of cv2pdb.

If you are using the Visual Studio Shell 2008 or 2010, it misses one file, that is needed for the conversion of the debug information by cv2pdb. This is msobj80.dll for VS2008 and msobj100.dll for VS2010 and must be extracted from a standard installation, the Visual C Express edition or the Windows SDK. You might also find it installed by other Microsoft products.

For documentation on the changes between this version and previous versions, please see the file CHANGES.

In a nutshell:

• install the Visual Studio SDK
• start Visual Studio and load solution visuald_vs9.sln (VS 2008) or visuald_vs10.sln (VS 2010+)
• build project "build"
• build project "VisualD"

For more information, visit http://rainers.github.io/visuald/visuald/BuildFromSource.html

For more information on installation, a quick tour of Visual D with some screen shots and feedback, please visit the project home for Visual D at http://rainers.github.io/visuald/visuald/StartPage.html.

There's a forum dedicated to IDE discussions (http://forum.dlang.org/group/digitalmars.D.ide), where you can leave your comments and suggestions. Bug reports can be filed to the D bugzilla database for Component VisualD.

Have fun, Rainer Schuetze