Is .NET's 'C' Sharper Than C++ or Java?
NewsFactor | at | by Mike
Whenever Microsoft does something, people pay attention. The company's .NET initiative, with its brand-new C# programming language thrown in for good measure, is no exception. According to Microsoft, C# promises rapid development of Web services applications. If that sounds familiar, it is. Sun has been promoting Java the same way for years. In fact, many are wondering whether C# is just a rehash of Java that will bind developers even more tightly to Microsoft's platforms -- or whether they might be better off skipping Java and C# altogether and sticking with C or C++ instead.
As one might expect, C# and .NET are Windows-only right now. But that does not mean developers are not interested in expanding the .NET experience beyond Windows. According to Gunnerson, Microsoft has released a runtime and compiler called Rotor for C# that runs on Win32, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. In addition, an open source project called Mono is attempting to create a .NET environment for Unix and Linux systems, and the GNU Project is working on DotGNU, another C# compiler, and related tools.