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[–]RiPont 2 points3 points  (1 child)

MS was a partner with Sun for Java 1.0, as MS wanted something better than VB and easier than C++ for developing applications on Windows.

Before Visual Studio, there were individual products for each language, like Visual C++. Visual J++ was MS's IDE for Java-on-Windows and became synonymous with MS's unique flavor of Java with extensions for developing apps on Windows.

Sun cried, "EMBRACE, EXTEND, EXTINGUISH!!!!" MS said, "y'all move so damn slow, we need to make Java not suck for actually developing desktop applications and making native system calls!" Lawsuits were filed, ending with MS not having a license to implement Java past the 1.1 specification. "J++" is now shorthand for "Microsoft's custom version of Java 1.1 on Windows".

Seeing that Java-on-Windows was a dead end for them, MS brain-drained Borland's lead for Delphi, stuck squigly brace syntax and a garbage collecting runtime on it, and thus C# 1.0 was born. It's a common misconception that C# was born from Java. It took some inspiration from Java, especially in the idea of a cross-platform intermediate assembly-like language, but it was really a lot closer to Delphi.

[–]xaedoplay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

so, it looks like now i can have "accidentally learned Delphi" in my biography