Ivan Shcherbakov @SysProgs shared interesting article. He wrote support for ESP8266-EVB to VisualGDB Visual Studio plugin for embedded software development in C/C++.
With this plugin you can use JTAG to debug code in ESP8266, also to set breakpoints, view the disassembled code etc. This adds new level for professional developing using ESP8266.
olimex 
Aug 29, 2015 @ 22:27:32
This is great! Now when I have no more excuses I went to their site and saw that the prices of the plugin is $89. Last time when I checked it was $50, but they really do work hard on this plugin so it is quite reasonable. Just add this to the $1000 VisualStudio license and you have quite nice cross development IDE.
Aug 31, 2015 @ 21:27:40
Hi,
Ivan @Sysprogs here. You can actually use VisualGDB with the free Visual Studio Community edition, so it is $89, not $1089 🙂
Sep 01, 2015 @ 10:54:02
This is hell of a deal! Keep up the wonderful work – your tools are really welcome as alternative to Eclipse with GNU tools.
Sep 01, 2015 @ 11:13:08
Well, Sysprogs, Olimex is talking about professional development and you mention VS Community edition which has great limitations in such usage (commercial) – only open-source or up to 5 people if you are in a small company.
Sep 01, 2015 @ 21:48:00
No, you could use community as long as you develop open source or your company is small, or use it for education.
For professional case you still use VisualGDB but then you have to buy (or reuse) VS Prof. This ends at 1000+USD, but still much less that Atollic, IAR, DS-5, Multi or some other professional IDEs.