“Developers get a great IDE and a single environment to not only work on end-to-end solutions - from mobile and web apps to games - but also to integrate with and deploy to Azure,” Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise group, said in a statement. Thanks to integration with Xamarin, a cross-platform software development company that Microsoft acquired last year, Visual Studio encourages macOS and iOS developers 'to use Microsoft’s development tools, since they will no longer need a Windows computer or virtual machine to do so.' Xamarin Studio is expected to eventually close for good following a full integration into Microsoft.

Visual Studio allows developers to code applications using Microsoft's integrated development environment (IDE) on Apple's macOS platform, which they can sync across both Windows and Mac devices. After spending months in preview, Microsoft today is officially launching its Visual Studio coding platform for the Mac (via VentureBeat).