http://www.devx.com/dotnet/articles/lp100901/lp100901.asp First Look at Microsoft J#.NET Beta

By Matt Liotta, Engineering Manager, and Lori Piquet, Editor-in-chief

We got an early look at the first beta of Microsoft J#.NET, which allows you to write .NET applications and services using Java language syntax. Find out what Java developer and DevX Engineering Manager Matt Liotta had to say about the latest addition to the Visual Studio.NET language family.

Recently, DevX got a rare opportunity to see an unannounced Microsoft product, J#.NET, in beta, when links to the product were temporarily made live on the Microsoft Web site. Though these links—either the result of an error or an intentional leak by Microsoft—were subsequently removed, the product was officially announced and a download of the beta made available by Microsoft on October 10.

J#.NET represents the first development tool on the marketplace that will allow developers to write native .NET applications and services using Java language syntax. Since the legal battle over Java between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft was settled, forcing Microsoft to cease further distribution and development of its Visual J++ IDE, the opportunity for developers to easily write Java language applications that integrate tightly with COM and the various Windows operating systems has dwindled. J#.NET appears to be a major attempt by Microsoft to recapture some portion of the Java developer base, giving these developers a tool to write applications in the language they prefer, while compiling natively to Microsoft's .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR), and thereby conferring on them all the interoperability, reusability, and ease-of-use that the Visual Studio.NET environment promises to provide.

J# is really no different than any of the other .NET languages, such as Visual Basic.NET or C#.NET. A J# application can make use of components created in other .NET languages. The reverse is also true; a C# or VB.NET application can make use of J# components. (To see some of the documentation for J#, view the Readme file from Microsoft.)

Figure 1 | Visual J# integrated immediately with our installed version of the Visual Studio.NET Beta 2, and allowed us to begin creating J# projects as we would with other .NET languages.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

Answers

Start http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualj/jsharp/beta.asp

Microsoft Visual J# .NET Beta 1

Visual J#™ .NET is a development tool for Java-language developers who want to build applications and services on the .NET Framework. Visual J# .NET joins more than 20 previously announced languages with its ability to target the .NET Framework and first-class XML Web services.

Visual J# .NET provides the easiest transition for Java developers into the world of XML Web services and dramatically improves the interoperability of Java-language programs with existing software written in a variety of other programming languages. Visual J# .NET enables Microsoft Visual J++ customers and other Java-language programmers to take advantage of existing investments in skills and code while fully exploiting the Microsoft platform today and into the future.

Visual J# .NET includes technology that enables customers to migrate Java-language investments to the .NET Framework. Existing applications developed with Visual J++ can be easily modified to execute on the .NET Framework, interoperate with other .NET-based languages and applications, and incorporate new .NET functionality such as ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and Windows Forms. Further, developers can use it to create entirely new .NET-based applications.

Visual J# .NET provides:

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001