August 14, 2000

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Web Development Platforms
Microsoft's C# Likely Signals The Death Knell For Visual J++

By Don Kiely

icrosoft has revealed a new language, C# (pronounced "C sharp"), that will join the Visual Studio.net collective.

Microsoft bills C# as a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language derived from C and C++ that combines the high productivity of Visual Basic and the raw power of C++. It sounds a bit like Java, doesn't it?

The company has published an introduction to C# and a language reference. With its late start and the fact that it's coming from Microsoft, it's unlikely that C# will be the Java killer the company seems to want it to be.

However, at least it will have a comparable language under its own control optimized for Windows development. All of ASP+ is written in C#, so it has been getting a good workout for at least a couple of years at Microsoft.

Microsoft has been decidedly quiet on its plans for Visual J++, but many observers believe that C# will quietly replace Microsoft's Java offering during the coming months.

Return to main story, "Stealing Java's Thunder."

Illustration by David Goldin

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