Visual J# - The new .NET mantra
In an attempt to wean developers away from Java, Microsoft launched Java User Migration Path (JUMP).

Inspite of bickering and browbeating between the industry's two giants over Java, once again the Java evangelists at Microsoft could not resist the ease and simplicity of Java programming. They came out with J# (pronounced J Sharp), which they say is neither based on Sun's JVM nor endorsed by Sun.

Java developers may find J# easy to develop and deploy, but alas! J# code can only run on .NET platform, and so defeats the very purpose for which Java was born - platform-independence.

Now you can find migration paths once again - convert your existing applets to run on .NET Framework.

Microsoft's development team is as much fascinated by Java as any honest developer worth his salt.

Java VS C#
When you look at a code snippet of C#, you can't help wondering how much it looks similar to Java code.

The similarity is not a co-incidence. It is the way an object-oriented program should look like. More than C++, Java seems to have influenced the development of C#, although Microsoft claims that C# has eveloved from C and C++, but fails to mention Java's contribution.

Nevertheless, C# must be treated as a language in its own right, for it is a free-standing, general-purpose object-oriented programming language.

You will find here similarities and differences between the two languages in future posts. So, keep looking!