Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: C# or Java? Java declares victory
Author: David Rothgery Posted: 6/26/2000; 8:46:03 PM Topic: C# or Java? Java declares victory Msg #: 18137 (In response to 18124) Prev/Next: 18136 / 18138
I've reconsiderred a bit. I have a (slightly loony) idea as to what the point of C# is. It's to distract Sun, by taking advantage of the two key features of the mainstream computer industry press.1. They're fascinated with marketplace wars.
2. They never notice dull, but important technology, no matter how much is spent promoting it, or who does the promoting.
C# looks like a Java knockoff. So the press will imediately start talking about the Java-C# war. But everyone at Microsoft has to know there's nothing particularly compelling about C#, just as there's nothing particularly compelling about Java.
But Microsoft's real weapon against Java, the language is Visual Basic. Always has been. The language isn't as powerful, in many respects, as Java, but it gets COM and Windows in a way that no other language really does. And at the same time C# is released, VB7 will be released -- with most of the 'real OO' features that VB has been missing to date, and likely getting Windows, COM+, and .NET like nothing else does.
So the idea is to keep the anti-Microsoft zealots thinking VB is just a toy language, while serious Windows developers stick with the VB and VC++ they already know.
Does this make sense, or is it just near-midnight typing from someone who has to go to work tommorow?
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