REDMOND, Wash., March 19, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of the second beta of Microsoft® Visual J# (TM) .NET, a development tool for Java-language developers who want to build applications and services on the Microsoft .NET Framework. Visual J# .NET is the first Java-language development tool to run on a platform offering native support for XML Web services. This support enables an easy transition for Java-language 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 programming languages. Visual J# .NET helps Microsoft Visual J++®
customers and other Java-language programmers take advantage of existing skills and code to fully exploit the .NET Platform.
“Integration is a fundamental principle of the .NET Platform,” said Tom Button, vice president of Developer Marketing and Enterprise Tools at Microsoft. “Visual J# .NET underscores Microsoft’s commitment to creating interoperability and choice of programming language for building XML Web services.”
“The technology of Visual J# .NET enables our developers to migrate existing investments in the Java language to the .NET Framework,” said Chris Maeda, chief technology officer at Kana. “With native support for XML Web services and a host of programming languages, the .NET Framework has enabled us to avoid the costly process of replacing existing systems or retraining our developers to focus on building great applications.”
Visual J# .NET is part of Microsoft’s Java User Migration Path to Microsoft .NET (JUMP to .NET) strategy, announced over a year ago, which outlines a set of independently developed technologies to help programmers preserve, enhance and migrate Java-language projects to the .NET Platform.
Key Features of Visual J# .NET
Key features include these:
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Full access to the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework provides the first and best platform with native support for XML Web Services. Visual J# .NET is designed to take full advantage of the platform, including ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Windows®
Forms and XML Web services, as well as full cross-language integration. -
Integration with Visual Studio .NET. Visual J# .NET provides programming tools support through its integration with the award-winning Visual Studio®
.NET integrated development environment (IDE). All the features of the IDE are easily accessible to the J# developer. -
Visual J++ 6.0 upgrade tools. Visual J# .NET includes tools to automatically upgrade existing Visual J++ 6.0 projects and solutions to the new Visual Studio .NET format. These tools help ensure that a current Visual J++ 6.0 developer can easily move to Visual J# .NET and produce .NET applications and components.
Availability
The second beta release of Microsoft Visual J# .NET is available today from either the Microsoft Web site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualj/jsharp/beta.asp or the MSDN®
developer program Web site downloads area for MSDN Universal customers, with a final release due in the middle of 2002. Applications and services built with Visual J# .NET will run only on the .NET Framework, and will not run on any Java virtual machine. Visual J# .NET has been independently developed by Microsoft and is the property of Microsoft Corp. It is not endorsed or approved in any way by Sun Microsystems Inc.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Visual J#, Visual J++, Windows, Visual Studio and MSDN are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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