Summary

In this chapter, we have taken a look at the new additions in the developer toolset for SQL Server 2016. There have been some long-awaited improvements made, especially the separation of SQL Server Management Studio from the release cycle of SQL Server itself. Many developers are hoping that the release velocity of SSMS will remain as high as it has been in the months since the SQL Server 2016 release. Almost monthly releases mean we all have the chance to get extra features and bug fixes much more quickly than in previous years.

Some of the feature additions to SSMS are quite powerful and will allow us as developers to be more efficient. Live Query Statistics provide us with excellent insights into how our queries are actually processed, removing parts of the "guessing game" when trying to refactor or tune our queries.

For SQL Server developers, there are two new development environments for developing the R code. Of course, one of them, the RStudio IDE is well-known among R developers. Because it is so widely used, it will probably be the first choice when developing R code for SQL Server developers. Nevertheless, if you are used to the Visual Studio IDE, you might give R Tools for Visual Studio a try.

After this short excursion into the tools that are delivered with SQL Server 2016, we continue our journey through the new features and technologies in SQL Server 2016 in Chapter 4, Transact-SQL Enhancements.