By Elizabeth Montalbano ,
Microsoft on Monday will unveil a programming language aimed at improving productivity for the development of Web applications.
Initial reports indicate the new language, a hybrid of C and C++ called C# (pronounced cee-sharp), behaves much like Java, Sun Microsystems' technology for cross-platform development. But Microsoft (stock: MSFT) executives insist C# does nothing of the kind.
"It's very different from Java," said David Lazar, a product manager at Microsoft, Redmond, Wash. "Java is trying to solve a different problem. [It] has applications running in different places. What customers really want is to get all of their applications running in one place, and this is what C# [enables them to do]."
Tony Goodhew, Visual C++ Microsoft product manager, concurs that C# is in no way a response to Java. It is designed to give developers a faster and better way to build Web applications in the tradition of C and C++ programming languages, he said.
"C# is designed to provide [developers] with a highly productive way of building applications and components for the Web services world," Goodhew said. "C and C++ developers tell us they want more productivity, but they want to stay close to that heritage and have more power and control. C# gives you better productivity, but allows you to leverage the full power of the [Internet] platform."
Goodhew would not comment on whether C#, like Java, is a cross-platform language. This is an important point to consider, however, in the development of Web applications, said Scott Hebner, director of e-business technology marketing at IBM's software group, Armonk, N.Y.
Hebner said that if Microsoft wants to push C# as a viable new Web application development technology, the language must be able to develop applications that can operate outside of Microsoft's Windows.
"The value of the Internet is that it's based on open standards -- it's vendor-neutral," Hebner said. "If the result of the [C#] technology is that it locks you into a particular operating system environment or becomes a control point of a vendor, that's not consistent with that value. In order for Microsoft to be keeping in line with current development, C# must be able to create applications for platforms outside just a Windows operating environment."
Despite the assertions of Microsoft executives, if C# is indeed a programming language that can create business logic for Web applications, it in essence is doing what Java does, Hebner said.
"The question becomes then: Why aren't you moving your developers to Java?" Hebner said. "In the final analysis, they've created another alternative language when they should've gone to the de facto standard [for deploying Web applications], which is Java."
Microsoft's use of Java is currently limited by a lawsuit with Sun (stock: SUNW) over Java licensing. In 1997, Sun sued Microsoft for allegedly breaching its Java licensing agreement by "polluting" Java to create programs that run only on Windows when Java was created to be compatible with all operating systems.
Sun will not comment on C# until it actually knows what the new technology is, a company spokesman said.
"At this time, there's nothing for us to look at, there's no specification," he said.
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