J# joins the .Net set

By Alun Williams

Posted on 2 Jul 2002 at 15:32

Microsoft has officially unveiled the Visual J# .Net programming language at its TechEd 2002 show for developers in Barcelona.

The Java-flavoured language is designed to produce applications and components for Microsoft's .Net platform, its foundation for Web services. It is aimed at those developers who have invested in Java but wish to remain within the Microsoft camp - Sun and Microsoft having long come to blows over the implementation of 'pure' Java.

Key features of the new language - in addition to its integration with the Visual Studio environment - includes its support for the .Net Framework (including ASP.Net and ADO.Net, Windows Forms and XML Web services) and its upgrade tools for automatically converting existing Visual J++ 6.0 projects.

Microsoft describes the new offering as the 'first Java-language tool with native XML Web services support'. Of course, Java is already Web-friendly as a language and numerous XML parsers exist for it, but Microsoft is highlighting that constructs within J# are designed to help programmers quickly build Web-based services. (XML is the logical markup system increasingly used to communicate data over the InterNet.)

Note, however, that applications and services built with Visual J#.Net will run only in the .Net framework - they will not run on any Java virtual machine.

The release means that Visual J# .Net takes its place as the Java-esque offering within Microsoft's flagship programming system, Visual Studio.Net. The set of Microsoft languages includes Visual Studio J#.Net, Visual C++ .Net, Visual C#.Net and Visual Basic.Net.

You can find more info on Visual J# .Net on Microsoft's MSDN Web site.

The language can be downloaded from the Web and will also be distributed to MSDN subscribers. UK pricing for Visual J#, as an individual package separate from Visual Studio, has not yet been confirmed.

A quick tour around the family tree of J# would go as follows. The original systems programming language C, in which UNIX was built, was developed into the more general purpose and class-based C++. This in turn was the basis for Java, which was a more Network- (and thus Internet-) friendly implementation. Following Microsoft's clashes with Sun Microsystems over the use of Java, Microsoft developed C# as its own InterNet-friendly, Java equivalent. And now, to help developers who had pursued the Java route using Microsoft's original implementation (Visual J++), a Java version of C# has been created that also encompasses Microsoft's .Net Web services vision.