Historically, Visual Studio has focused on specific Microsoft-centric languages, including C++, C#, and Visual Basic. Between the Internet, mobile devices, and the ever-increasing rapid pace of change, new computer languages are being created in an effort to ease development, and present new solutions to problems. In view of these changes, it is easy to see that Microsoft seeks to position VS2015 as the tool of choice for any development work taking place on Windows, regardless of the ultimate target platform.

The benefit to us as users of VS2015 is that as we improve our understanding and usage of this platform, we can then make use of it in a greater number of situations. In this chapter, we will look at TypeScript, Python, and IronPython, a few languages that offer some unique capabilities when compared to the traditional languages offered in Visual Studio. Then we will conclude this chapter by learning about VS2015's capability to target non-Windows platforms when writing C++ code, giving you the ability to use your VS2015 skills in a new environment on devices ranging from the Raspberry Pi to powerful Linux supercomputers.